Super Mario Apocalypse 4: The Transformation
by zhaich
Summary: The apocalypse has occurred, and the surviving Koopalings and their offspring attempt to survive in a world filled with starvation and death. Old evils still linger from the previous world, including one long forgotten. But even then, love may blossom from the pits of despair, and from this a new world may be created. Sequel to The Great Destroyer.
1. 46: Aftermath

_Welcome to the fourth installment of Super Mario Apocalypse. This book focuses upon life immediately after the apocalypse as each of the remaining Koopalings, each with their own generation of Koopalings try to survive in a rapidly changing environment filled with death and starvation. Old evils still lurk about including one long forgotten. Even then, love may blossom from the pits of despair. This series is more focused upon Bowser's children and grandchildren than the other installments._

_This story is in many ways a reflection of what is currently happening in reality (and may possibly happen in the future). This includes climate change, erratic weather, earthquakes, flooding and so forth. Just look up Youtube and see the wacky weather that's been happening all over the world, not to mention the increasing food prices, lack of jobs, increasing selfishness and desperation. This story is my personal message in regards to that._

_There are a few sources that I would like to give credit to that also serve as my inspiration. These include ZetaTalk, Immanuel Velikovsky, Zecharia Sitchin, Erich von Daniken and a number of authors dedicated to esoteric study. Separating the wheat from the chaff, or the truth from the lies one arrives at a stranger picture of reality then one would imagine. Again, thank you for reading and I hope you enjoy the story._

* * *

Snow fell upon an apocalyptic landscape of broken buildings, twisted stone and littered corpses. Only one figure trudged through the inches already piled up in the otherwise still Koopa Kingdom, now broken and ruined. There were corpses everywhere, many littered on broken roads where they had tried to run from the inevitable flash freeze that overtook the region. In normal days, extra hands would've cleaned up the destruction by this point, but not now. This was the end of the Koopa Kingdom and he knew it. What happened now largely depended upon the survivors and less to do with the monarchs that "ruled" over them. Most had migrated west before the end came, but despite the warnings some stayed in the path of danger, not fully believing what was to come. There were always people like that, including himself at times which reminded him of his destination. He looked up at John's Castle, formerly Bowser's Castle before it was partially destroyed. The top was now covered with crumbling stones, snow and ice; the place was turning into nothing more than a ruin. He already guessed their fates, and had made peace with himself. Whatever the outcome, it didn't matter: he needed to see them for himself. Plus, the castle pantry may yield up some valuable items before he would be forced to hunt for wild meat, if it was still out there.

Deciding it wise to not break the silence, he took the long way into the castle and climbed up a set of broken stone steps towards the castle's second floor. The door inside was gone and instead the path was littered with bricks and other debris. Inside the hall, he saw that all of the windows had shattered and snow was freely blowing into the hallway. The normally black stone walls were iced over, confirming his suspicions. He already knew what to expect.

Turning right, he headed up an auxiliary stairwell to the next level which was now partially broken. He jumped over the gap, his landing shaking the castle a little too much for his tastes. Nonetheless, nothing seemed to give way and he proceeded through the doorway to the third level. It was the same as the level below: broken windows and iced walls with a layer of snow on the floor. But he stopped walking when he saw the body of a small child lying beneath one window ahead, covered in a layer of ice. He nodded, expecting as much. That was definitely one of them. He expected as much...

At length, his feet moved on their own and he found himself continuing down the hall. They must have huddled in the throne room then. That's what Wendy would've done and why he chose to look there first. Reaching the body, he looked down and stared at the face. It was a girl, wide-eyed and mouth open with a smile. She was about to say something, it looked like. He didn't know her name, but she looked like she would've been a bright and cheerful girl. If he had gotten there earlier...

He shook his head and turned around. The throne room was just ahead to the right. A part of him didn't want to see whatever lay inside, but regretting to look was the bigger punishment and he knew he had no choice. It was only a few steps, but soon he found himself peering into the room and immediately froze in place. Inside, he found Wendy O. Koopa sitting upon the royal throne staring straight at him in death, her body frozen to the stone seat. She may not have been the Queen of the Koopa's, but she did indeed resemble the queen of death. All around her were corpses sprawled across the floor, most seeming to be children. Against the left wall was another adult, sitting with her eyes shut. He looked at her for a long time and wondered, he wondered about a lot of things and what could have been and should have been. But no, that was and this is. His wife, his children and his sister were all dead.

"God, you hate me. I know it." Roy managed to say, "But come on. This is too much." He inhaled. "Too much..." He fought back the tears, telling himself long ago that he would never cry, but this was tough. His family was dead, and with it his dream of unifying the Koopa race. The pole shift took everything away from him. What was there to do now?

A moving stone was then heard and Roy immediately brandished the Earth Wand in defense, thinking that his nemesis, Narec Morello Koopa had returned to the castle. Instead, he saw something fall from the top of the left wall and plummet to the floor. Walking over, Roy saw that it was a bald Koopaling with a red and white shell, the same one he had seen before in his battle with Narec. His face was white and his muscles were visibly shaking, but he was alive. That's all that mattered now. The dream was still alive.

Roy knelt down and helped him up, and the youth stood on his feet and merely looked at him for a moment. Then he cast his gaze around the room and took it all in. Roy was silent as he watched him walk to Diadora and shake her shoulder. "Mom, are you awake?" he asked.

Roy shook his head. "She's not waking up."

"How do you know?" he replied angrily. Roy walked over and checked her wrist, which was lifeless. "Check the wrist. No pulse, no blood. No life."

"Who the hell are you?" he finally asked.

"Roy Koopa." Roy responded flatly. "You?"

"Vincent." said the boy. "Why are you helping me?"

"I'm your dad, that's why." Roy responded.

"You?! Then why didn't you come helps us earlier?" Vincent asked, demanding an answer. "We were all tortured by these guys...and mom said you'd come. We could have gotten out of here before whatever just happened if you came earlier."

Roy sighed. "You don't know the world yet, what it's like. When you see it, you'll know why."

"And if mom wasn't so crazy, the others could have lived!" Vincent continued.

"Don't speak bad about her." Roy warned. "She's the reason you're alive."

"But-" Roy held up his hand and Vincent looked away with an annoyed look. He was too much in shock to cry and could not do anything but stare at it all.

But in reality, Roy wanted silence as he heard another noise that sounded like someone thumping the floor. "How many of you?" he asked.

"Kristin." Vincent started, pointing to the Koopaling lying on the floor next to his dead mother. "She died before this happened, but you wouldn't believe me if I told you how."

Roy said nothing, and instead Vincent continued. "There's...Stevie." He looked around until he saw her body out in the hallway. "That's her." he frowned.

"Saw her." Roy muttered. "Who else?"

"There's me, then Beth and Duke. I thought I heard someone say run. They must have ran down the hall..." Vincent trailed off as he walked to the eastern entrance and looked down it before entering the hall. Roy followed, now realizing the source of the noise. About 20 feet down the hallway were a pair of bodies, one lying on top of the other. But an arm was seen moving underneath, thumping the floor in an apparent attempt to be free.

"Duke!" Vincent ran to his brother and shook him, but stopped short upon seeing his cold lifeless stare. He stood there in remorse, but Roy moved around him and with his arms managed to push Duke's stiff body aside. Underneath him was Beth, who looked very pale and was nearly frozen solid to the floor. Her mouth was chattering, evidently trying to say something. "I...I'm...c-c-c-c-cold...I...what...happened?" she managed to stutter.

Vincent tried to push her up but the ice around her would not give way. Seeing this, Roy took the Earth Wand and slammed its butt end into the floor. Immediately, the ice all around them shattered and flew into the air momentarily before falling back onto the floor. Seeing the ice now broken around her, Vincent helped her up again but found her leaning against him heavily. "I-I can't f-f-f-f-feel m-m-m-m..." Roy saw that her legs were blackened with severe frostbite.

"Carry her." said Roy.

"Where are we going?" Vincent asked.

"Nowhere yet." said Roy. "Need to raid the pantry, get food. Get wands for you two in the magic room. Weapons, knives. Lots of things. Wont get another chance for a long time. Then we...bury them. If not, then the traditional way. Probably the traditional way. Do that last. Smoke leaves a trail, a signal. Tells people we're here. We don't want people bothering us. Let's do the pantry first."

Beth went wide eyed at that last remark, but could not say anything. She was too cold and too much in shock to try. Vincent himself had a hard time accepting what had happened and it felt like he was living inside a nightmare instead. Nonetheless he knew he had to live regardless, and so Beth jumped onto his shell and they slowly followed Roy down the hall towards the pantry.

In time, the trio had raided the kitchen and took what they could and put them in packs for a journey Roy alluded to. The kitchen otherwise being uneventful, they then headed to the magic room which Roy looked over extensively. It seemed the UmNaru remnant had made a home there directly as several black magic scrolls, black paper with gold lettering were still seen laying about. "How much did they teach you?" Roy asked.

"A bit." Vincent said. "They taught us slowly. They always wanted to see us do it in action and we...most of us never wanted to do it."

"Most?" Roy asked.

"Kristin." Beth said, starting to warm up a bit. "She kept hurting me, cause they told her to."

Roy looked at her for a moment, then turned and walked to the corner of the magic room where a door was seen sealed with a bar across it. With a magic blast, the door exploded revealing a small dusty room with minimal damage. Within the walls were nooks housing old scrolls of various sizes, and a part of the wall housed another door, this one sealed with a glowing spell. The back of the room held one more door, this one rustic and medieval in design.

Roy looked through the old scrolls for a moment before walking to the magically sealed door. It was a treasure of the old Magikoopas that wasn't allowed to be seen by other eyes, so he and his siblings learned. Roy was always told not to go into this room, but at the end of the world, that didn't matter. The Earth Wand shattered the magic barrier and the doors opened automatically, revealing a shelf space lined with numerous wands around its perimeter. Most had multiple gems on their ends.

"You're each getting one." said Roy, looking through them. "Oh yeah..." Vincent murmured, remembering something. He took out his dad's wand and handed it to him. "I found this."

"How'd you get this?" Roy asked.

"I used it to knock Narec out the window." Vincent explained, looking back towards the duel room.

"And the gem? There's a gem with dis."

"It blew up when I used a fire spell on it." said Vincent.

"...alright." Roy muttered and took the wand before handing Vincent and Beth a pair of Magikoopa wands. "Take these." They looked like wands that Kamek could carry.

"Never seen this before." Vincent commented.

"It's for high level Magikoopa's." Roy explained. "Works for now." He noticed that the bottom of the shelf opened up, and inside he found a number of ingredients, tools and cut gems stuffed inside pouches. "Nice." Taking one for himself, he handed several pouches to his kids. "Did they show you how to make your own wands?"

"No." Beth replied. "They gave us starters."

"Then I'll show you the basics." said Roy. "Everyone goes through it, everyone in the family. I'll show you after we leave." After pocketing many gems including a black one for his own wand, he took with him an old instructional book and closed the door. "We're done here."

Afterwords, Roy had wandered into the armory to pick out new sets of weapons for himself and his kids, especially for Vincent. Rather uneventful, the solemn moment finally came that none of them looked forward to. It was done quickly and without delay as no one wanted those moments to last.

In short time, the pair had gathered the corpses and had placed them outside in the back of the castle, within what was formally known as the castle gardens. Now it was a mess of rubble, though the Tomb of Claudia still stood largely undamaged in the background save for its upper frame, which had sustained minor damage. Beth watched the two from the doorway, seated with several blankets around her legs. She watched them look through their clothes, presumably for anything valuable. Roy had taken a few things from Diadora, including her wallet. Eventually Roy stomped the ground with his foot, but found the ground already frozen over with a think layer of ice. They could probably do it that way, but it was extra effort not worth the time.

"We're doing it the ol' fashioned way." announced Roy.

"What's that?" Vincent asked, but Roy was already making gestures over the bodies. "May the Creator guide them through the afterlife and heal their souls. The eternal flame burns on." Inhaling, Roy let loose a large swath of flame engulfing his dead loved ones and setting them alight. "The eternal flame burns on." Roy repeated, making a notion with his hand.

"The eternal flame lives on..." Vincent repeated with a sad expression. Beth was crying and could not repeat the pronouncement. In the noise of the fire, Vincent at length heard her sobs and walked over to embrace her. Roy however, looked behind him to the Tomb of Claudia Koopa, his mother and saw the connection to all of this. "Tragedy still flows, mom." Roy said to himself, remembering her sudden death many years ago. It seemed to follow him throughout his life. "But like you said, we still got something. This land doesn't, this land is dead. We gotta go. I probably wont see you again...but thanks for believing." Turning away, he somberly marched past the pile of burning corpses and back to the entrance of the castle.

Vincent had unwrapped Beth's legs and was trying to cast a spell on them with his new wand acquired from the Magikoopa vault. "Red magic." said Roy. "Learn as much as you can. Builds fires and warms the body."

"I'm trying to use white magic." said Vincent.

"How?" Roy asked, curious as no white magic scrolls existed inside the castle.

"Through the ring mom gave me." said Vincent, briefly showing it.

"The ring of Inauro?" Roy knew what it was, but was unsure how powerful it was. It was better used for more subtle influences rather than direct application, so Diadora told him. "It's not used like that." he said eventually.

"Oh." Vincent muttered. With the Earth Wand, Roy cast a low level red spell and a humid warmth spread through Beth's legs. She tensed at the pain.

"Gonna hurt for a while." said Roy. "I'm no doctor, but keep 'em warm and you should be fine. Should get Iggy on dis." But for the first time, Roy noticed that the mind of his crazy brother was missing.

"Iggy?" Vincent asked.

"Your uncle. One of them." Roy replied. "He's not here. Not good." He inhaled. "Alright, we deal with it. Let's get our packs and start heading out. We're going towards the crags over there." He pointed to one of the ranges to his south. "Used to be the west. South now. We need to leave this place quick, going to get a lot colder. I'll teach you how to start fires, hunt and cook enemies. Will teach you how to rely on yourself."

The kids said nothing, already having been through a lot.

"Listen." said Roy. "I had to burn them. Narec would animate them if I didn't. Animate them into undead. Have to burn everything and prevent that, even the bones. It's the only way."

"...like you were?" Vincent asked. "Was that you before, when you were just bones?"

"Yeah. That was me. Spell in my wand kept me together. Your granddad did the same, a lot. But mom didn't have a wand like mine. It's a high level spell. They would've been at their mercy. Had to burn them."

Vincent said nothing.

"Listen! This is important. Don't forget it. Nothing lasts. Nothing you can hold will last. It will fall away, to shadows and dust. Your wand won't last forever. People wont last, they will die. Let it go. Don't hold onto them, don't hold onto anything. Cause its all in your heart already. It'll always be there. No one can touch it unless you let them. Don't hold onto things too long. Let it go..." Roy turned towards the southern range. "Let this place go. It had its time. It's time is done. We're moving out of here, that way." Roy pointed to a range of erupting volcanoes.

"How can we survive that?!" Vincent blurted out.

"You can. I'll show you." Roy said.

"Why can't we just cross the sea?" Beth asked.

"It's freezing up." Roy answered. "We're in the polar circle now."

"The polar circle?!"

"Come on." Roy pulled Vincent up to his feet. "You keep warmer by moving. Walk in place if you have to. We're going through a pass in the southern range. Those who lived here went that way, went to new lands. Much warmer now I bet." Roy walked to the other end of the garden and looked towards the Koopahari Pass, the only "official" road that was built through the southern range. But he was dismayed to find that the road was engulfed with lava flows that crawled down it. His primary plan didn't look so good now.

"What about that path over there?" Vincent pointed to an opening in the mountain range behind the garden.

"You aren't ready for that." said Roy. "That's last resort. Beth wouldn't make it."

"Why not?" Vincent demanded.

"That's the Valley of the Koopas." Roy explained. "All Earth kings buried there...almost all. Place is haunted. Dry bones crawl everywhere. The dead armies of kings crawl the hills, they kill anyone passing through. Only the King of the Koopas can pass. Rest have to fight their way out. Beth can't fight like that. Need to try the southern route and find medical. Keep her legs warm until then." Roy looked back at the fire and saw nothing but bones burning. Heading over, he unleashed another breath of flame which engulfed what was left. He headed back to the doorway. "We're leaving now. Come on." Vincent knelt down and Beth grabbed onto his shoulders before he followed his father back down the hall.

* * *

Penny Crygor arose from the flood waters that had entered the lower levels of the Temple of Marthos, her body drenched with water. All around her people were in a frenzy as they recovered from the onslaught of the Destroyer. "Where is he?"

"Where is who?" asked an old man in a now drenched blue robe. In that low light, little else could be made out.

"Where is Iggy?" she replied, looking around for the exit. Iggy was not there in her mind like he usually was, instead he was replaced with darkness. Penny waded to the entrance to the upper floor along with a group of people, climbing over steps built by giants. In her mind, she saw and heard a million voices echo through her, crying for help in distress or out of madness. It was an ability brought to her by the Spirit Wand when she agreed to take up its negative polarity, being the female. But it was far more than she bargained for and she wondered how sane she really was at times.

Penny helped the old man up the steps and with a small group of people made their way to the ground level of the temple, which was mobbed with people. Everyone sat in a clutter amid a loud uproar of voices. The situation called to her, but it was a logistical nightmare. Several already noticed her and began to ask her a variety of questions, many of which she did not have the answer to. She needed to slow her mind down and stay focused.

Penny tried to think of something to say, but her thoughts betrayed her as nothing came to her lips despite her intentions. This wasn't how it was supposed to go. Penny didn't imagine it like this. They were lucky they were even alive, but what about tomorrow? The food in storage was already being used up, at least what survived of it and a large group hovered around the food totes hoping for at least a small bit. Given how fast that was going and what she saw of the plants in the corner, they were going to run out of food fast. Desperation was crawling around their minds, but so it was in Penny's. The garden outside must have been destroyed...was, seeing a few people on the surface looking at things. But the one thing that kept bothering her the most was Iggy. Where was he?

Penny remembered Erzembar and wondered if he could help. Many of the people around her had already moved off, deciding to help themselves instead. The old man remained, looking at her with a studious look. "I need to find Iggy." Penny said, finding the words after a moment. The old man nodded and walked towards the crowd that waited for food. Penny procured the Spirit Wand but found she couldn't cast a teleportation spell correctly. It took her several tries until she found the will power and the spell manifested, sending her into a hidden storage room. There, she saw the globe of Erzembar glowing next to the left wall of the room. "Greetings." it said. "It is well that you survived."

"I need to find Iggy." Penny said, picking up the globe.

"I scan your mind." Erzembar hummed for a moment. "Ah, this is unfortunate. His current location explains your lack of vision as to his whereabouts. However..."

"Where is he?" Penny demanded, starting to lose patience. In response, Penny found herself teleported into a strange room, the ceiling coalescing into the shape of a pyramid above her. The room was empty save for pools of water in the corners and a stone seat to her left, upon which was King Iggy Koopa who was slumped on his side. Directly across from him was a narrow window that only partially illuminated his body.

"Iggy!" Penny ran over to him and looked at his body. His right hand was clutching the other half of the Spirit Wand, otherwise his gaze ahead seemed to be lifeless. She reached for his shoulder.

"Do not touch him." Erzembar warned and Penny pulled away. "He is upon the Seat of the World. You would join him if you make physical contact with his vessel now."

"What does that mean?" Penny asked.

"The seat allows a spirit monarch to witness any portion of the physical illusion upon this planet, without the need of traveling to said illusion." Erzembar explained. "In order to witness a desired location, one must surrender physical control of their vessel to their soul alone. This requires a large amount of advanced discipline to operate properly. Without this, the soul immediately discarnates from the physical vessel and eventually travels to the astral spheres."

"Iggy died?!" Penny's mind went into a panic, and she almost touched Iggy again before she remembered Erzembar's words from before. She walked about the room with a million thoughts going through her head.

"Unlike his previous death, Iggy's soul can return on its own volition." said Erzembar.

"He did that the last time." Penny countered.

"Not precisely." corrected Erzembar. "Previously, he required to travel across time space to discover the method used to reincarnate back into his latest vessel. At this time, his soul is still within this time space and he knows the method for reincarnation. He is currently busy with the mass of discarnate spirits that were killed during the pole shift. His return will be delayed."

"Why can't I figure this stuff out?" Penny said to herself before sighing in aggravation. Erzembar remained silent, which told her the truth. From the start of this survival saga, she was a little girl with big dreams, and her dreams were now crumbling all over her. While the idea of hosting a survival shelter was grand it was clear she hadn't internally prepared herself for the worst case scenarios properly. In retrospect, her heart didn't let her think of the worst. Not only that, but Penny wasn't entirely knowledgeable of the wands full abilities, spending most of her time preparing the shelter instead of learning about the wands capabilities. She now saw why Iggy continually pressed her to learn more about the wand.

"How long do you think he'll be gone?" Penny asked, forced to rely upon the ancient computer for now.

"It seems he will be occupied for some time." replied Erzembar. "At least for several days."

"People will be hungry by then." Penny said. "I need to find food now. What about those seeds in your temple?"

"Upon my last inventory analysis, the seeds were safely stored in room AX23B." stated Erzembar. "However, with the Kermillion fault opening, the current state of the temple cannot be known. I would suggest raising the complex from its suspended state, the spell of which is this."

Erzembar sent a command to Penny's mind, and at once she walked and climbed through the window to face where the temple complex would be. Pointing her wand towards the area, she let loose the command in her conscious mind and waited. But nothing happened.

"Nothing." Penny said. Erzembar hummed itself as she climbed back through the window. "I would ask that you attempt this again while I support your efforts."

Breathing in, Penny climbed back through the window, albeit somewhat annoyed and pointed the wand towards the complex again. She uttered the command, and this time a large noise was heard in the desert, something akin to stone grinding against stone. Eventually the ruckus ceased. "This is unprecedented." Erzembar commented.

"It worked every time up until now I bet." Penny said, again climbing back inside the room.

"More or less correct." replied Erzembar. "The Kermillion fault is a recent phenomena brought about by the previous pole shift. It appears that damage to the raising mechanisms have occurred and the temple cannot be entered by normal means. The only method that may be used now is teleportation. I will guide you to the room you seek."

Picking up Erzembar, the two were surrounded by light for a few seconds before it disappeared again. Penny saw herself surrounded by the familiar architecture of Erzembar's hallways, now in a much damaged state. Ahead of her, the hall had collapsed and debris blocked her path.

"This is hall AX." said Erzembar. "It seems AX23B lies buried as I cannot lock onto any free space within that location."

"Of course." Penny muttered. "Listen. Take me to the library in this place. If I can't find any food, then I have to try making it...or conjuring it in magic terms."

"Very well." With another teleport, they arrived inside Erzembar's library which, despite its massive size had minimal damage done to it. A few shelves had ripped from the walls and collapsed onto the floor and debris from the ceiling was littered on the ground in some places, but otherwise it had largely weathered the storm.

Penny set Erzembar down on a table and looked at the large number of books and scrolls, not sure where to start. But upon seeing a color code alongside a long wall of scrolls she headed towards that direction, eying the green section. It's what Iggy would have done being the master of nature magic, or so Penny thought. While she wasn't even close to his skill, she still needed to try and conjure up seeds for the colony.

But Erzembar couldn't help but worry about Penny's delicate mental state. It was inadvisable to allow those mentally fragile to work with magic, but experience taught him to be silent to those who could not reason...

* * *

It was the first time that Mona looked outside and what she saw somewhat startled her. The sea had risen much faster than she thought. The rocky plains that once surrounded the Eternal Fortress Genlic were now gone and replaced with the open sea. Only the hill the fortress rested upon remained along with a small area of land below circling its circumference. Waves still sloshed about and the sky was filled with a cloudy turmoil that flew straight across her in a hurry. In the distance, what were the Amadorian mountains were now islands of themselves, with numerous peaks jutting out of the waves. It seemed their original guess was more or less correct.

The voices behind her however reminded her of the situation. Mona turned around and was met with a crowd of people that filled the hall she was in. Everything seemed to be in chaos, despite a number of groups trying to regain control. Some were trying to get into the food production area, others were tending to wounded while others looked for medical aid. Even more just stood around and looked at the chaos in awe, reminding Mona of her duties. She took her radio, which had half battery remaining.

"Have you found Larry anywhere?" Mona asked.

"Negative, we've been working without him." came Kooper's response.

"Hey, are there any medics on floor B3?" asked Bombette.

"I'll try to move some up from 4." came an unfamiliar response. The team had grown larger since their inception and Mona didn't know all of them.

"Can we try to get everyone into the Main Hall so we can get this more organized?" Mona asked.

"Well, everyone can't fit in there." said Kooper. "But there's the auditorium just below it."

"They can't fit there either." came 9-volt's voice. "I've tried before with that one concert."

"So split it between them." Mona suggested. "I'll take the hall and Kooper can get the torium. But we need people to keep an eye on the floors too, so I want the more senior members to look after them."

"So string along the newer ones?" Kooper asked.

"Yeah. I know people, trust me." Mona said. "Let's do this. I'm heading up there now. I'll take floor 2 and up. If I have more room I'll radio in."

"You got it chief." Kooper relayed.

"Send all the auditors to the fields and stockrooms below and do a count on what we have." Mona continued, now making her way through the crowd. "Leave anyone seriously hurt where they are with the medics. I want most of security to guard the food and stores, cause people. The rest, send them to the torium and the hall. If you can, send a small medic group to each if they have enough guys to do it."

"Roger ma'am." Putting the radio away, Mona took out her Wand of the Blood inherited from Larry and successfully teleported to one of the upper balconies of the main hall where people were already seen flooding in. Mona wondered why her teleporting suddenly decided to start working after not working earlier, but chalked it up to her nerves. Watching people enter, she was amazed at how many people were injured from the pole shift despite being within such an impenetrable structure. Mona also noticed the penchant for people not to listen to authority despite being told not to come here while injured. At length, Mona looked away, not liking to be above anyone else like that. In reality, she wished Larry was here to do this speech thing instead, but trying to contact him via telepathy resulted in nothing...again.

She almost didn't see a group of people take residence on the balcony across from her. One pointed and aimed a large weapon which sent Mona into shock for a moment, but she regained her wits and took her wand in defense. A rocket was fired at her and she imagined herself surrounded by a shield. The projectile exploded on target, breaking what order there was below and everyone went every which way in chaos.

But the mutinous were surprised to find Mona intact in the smoke, though she looked visibly shaken by the attack. This didn't stop their determination however and they loaded their next rounds while bringing another launcher in. Mona knew she had to kill them but also knew she wasn't that kind of a person to begin with. Nevertheless, she charged up her wand to defend herself again with a new idea.

But the next round of shots never met their target as they each exploded one by one in mid air. Mona looked around her until she was aware of a noise coming from behind her. Walking upon a crudely shaped crutch was King Larry Koopa who slowly moved towards her with his Blood Wand in the other hand. "Come on assholes!" he shouted, pointing his wand at them. "I will kill all of you right now!"

"Run!" cried the leader, but they became surrounded by a blackish rainbow light. "No no, stay put." Larry said. "I order you to." Taking them up into the air, he slammed them against a wall nearby and they fell to the ground in a heap. One of them did not get up, but the rest tried to run again.

"Anyone who tries to mutiny in my fortress will be killed." said Larry, encircling them again. "And anyone who tries to harm Mona, myself or anyone on the Genlic team will be met with punishment. I don't tolerate any of that bullshit!" He raised them off the ground and watched them struggle. "What's the matter? Can't fight a cripple?"

"Dickless lizard." spat the leader. "You don't deserve this place. We will take back what is ours!"

In response, Larry flipped them upside down and slammed them into the ground head first, breaking most of their necks and killing them instantly. One managed to get up but people had arrived at that level by then and had their way with him. Larry sighed.

"Thanks..." Mona managed to say, still shaken up. Larry nodded in response. "What happened to you?" She looked at him and noticed dried blood on the left side of his body under his crutch which his left arm leaned against.

"I fell onto an elevator." Larry muttered. "I also lost my radio. But I gotta take care of this first." He hobbled over to the edge of the balcony. "Hello! You just got a front row seat to what I had to deal with on a constant basis! And I still do apparently. If you see anyone do this, take it upon yourselves to arrest them if you want, and bring them to us alive. Some of these may be spies from the establishment, the...old world order. The UmNaru. Check their hands. If one of them has a strange symbol on it, then they're an agent. They want the old order to come back to persecute and basically fuck everyone over again. Guess what? That's not happening, at least in this place. And if they kill a single one of you, then I will make sure they are hunted down across the planet until they are extinct! They've tried to kill me ever since I became king, but that's not going to happen. They can't run now that Genlic is an island, so it seems some have come out in a last desperate stand.

"Speaking of that, let's talk about some more pleasant things. We need the boating groups to step up to the plate now and achieve what they've planned. Once they're built, we can start fishing and exploring the other islands once things are under control here. Start as soon as possible on that. As for right now, Mona probably has a better grasp of what's going on." Larry looked at her.

"...I'm just sad that people hate me like that." Mona said, but found herself choking up and couldn't continue. A shout came and the crowd offered applause for her support as she tried to hide the tears.

"No, I can do this." Mona said. "I'm just sad." She straightened herself out after a moment. "Hatred like that needs to stop. There's no reason for it except for your own selfishness. But I'm off track...listen, before I say anything else, if there's anyone you know that is wounded, we have medics at both ends of every hall so please go see them if someone has an injury.

"Okay, next thing. Right now, we're auditing what we have left of the fields and in storage, and we know we have lost at least 2 of those fields. So to make sure we don't starve, we're going to be rationing in place until we know how much we really have. It's not going to be that bad, the only change in the routine will be eating two meals a day instead of three. People from the Genlic team will mark your name off a list and check to see how many times you've eaten food from the stores per day. Once you've had two meals, that's it. We don't think we lost a whole lot, but for starvation reasons this needs to be done as overeating is the last thing we want. Once we get the reports back from the auditors, then we'll decide what to do next. Well, that's my portion of it." Mona stepped back and looked at Larry.

"A few more things." said Larry. "I ask the DX group to get into full gear and start rigging up the antennas they brought down not too long ago. We're an island now so we should have amazing range, but at the same time, there's few other ways to talk to the mainland so this is one of the best ways to do so-" A strong aftershock shook at that moment and Larry nearly fell off of his feet. "And of course these quakes wont go away any time soon either. Be vigilant when they happen. Also, if there are any Magikoopa's in the crowd right now then I'd like to see you as soon as possible. That's it for now. If you have any ideas, then let one of us know. Thank you for your patience."

The group began to disperse, but before Mona could say anything a trio of Magikoopas appeared in front of Larry. "Yes, how can we be of assistance?" one of them asked.

"We need a defensive perimeter set up around the circumference of Genlic." Larry explained. "This should alert us to any more spies of the UmNaru that might still be here, and we can take care of them easily once they are found after that."

"I believe that this may be done." said one. "However, we will first need to obtain a crystal sufficient for what you ask. While we do have a collection currently, it will take some time before we can determine which will be most useful for the job. Once we have discovered the best method possible, we shall inform you right away."

"Also, do you require healing?" another Magikoopa asked.

"It's a little unfair, but...I do need to be in better shape right now." Larry said. "That's fine."

"Very well, we shall meet you in our chambers when you are ready." said the last and the trio disappeared in swirling shapes and colors.

"I would hug you right now for what you did, but I don't want to break anything else." smiled Mona.

"Save it when I'm in better shape." Larry said, adjusting his position. "The shift might be over, but we're still running a marathon. And even though it's very unfair compared to everyone else, I'm about to be healed up by the magic users."

"Hey, you're the leader, you need it." Mona pointed out. "And I doubt you can run far with a crutch, but that was pretty impressive."

"I'm a wounded warrior, that's how I'm gonna react." Larry said.

"Only in body I hope." Mona said, looking at his damaged side.

"Yeah." Larry smiled. "I'm still on fire. And I won't be put out that easily."

"Come on, I'll teleport you there." Mona said, wrapping an arm around his shoulders. She then cast a teleportation spell and they both disappeared in a flash.

* * *

With a groan, Ludwig Von Koopa awoke from sleep with pain rippling through his head. It was dark, though he could hear voices of children around him. His vision refocusing, he saw that he was under a pile of hospital beds...but how? That's not what occurred to him earlier, when atmospheric turbulence launched him through the corridor and into the back wall, knocking him out. Now he was slumped against a wall of a slanted room.

"I can't get it off!" came a cry.

"Hold still, I'll push up!" came another. Amongst all this were the sounds of crying which prompted Ludwig to action. He pushed the hospital bed aside and slowly stood up and a near silence fell in the room. The former monarch looked around him and realized what had happened. He was clearly in the escape pod, which now lay at an angle with the now broken hospital beds in the corner. They all stared at him, clearly not expecting his revival so soon.

"The pole shift has occurred then." he said to himself, unsure to count himself as lucky for not bring conscious for the event, or unlucky for not being there for his family. But the sight of Samantha's leg wedged between pieces of metal made him put the dilemma off for later. As he walked over, Xavier, his oldest child with long thin navy blue hair backed away from his sister as Ludwig almost without effort lifted the metallic fragment from her, revealing a bloody leg.

"Again?" Xavier exclaimed.

"What do you mean "again?"" asked Ludwig.

"That was the same leg that was broken earlier!" Xavier explained.

"Earlier? How long was my person unconscious for?" Ludwig asked. The children looked at each other.

"I have no idea." Elizabeth said at last, the second oldest with long green hair with multiple braids. "Everything moved too fast."

"Considering the end of civilization that most likely occurred, that is forgivable." said Ludwig. "But you must inform me what has transpired since my temporary departure from conscious reality when our situation is more...secure." He looked at the rest of his offspring. Trent Koopa, his youngest and mute son with spiked golden hair had been dragged into one of the seats it seemed, but he was unconscious and not buckled in. Walking over, he checked his wrist and found a pulse.

"Both you guys went flying into the wall." said Elizabeth. "Trent hasn't woken up yet."

"There are only five of you." said Ludwig. "Where is Tommy and Amy?"

"They got trapped in a room back on the castle." said Elizabeth. "All the doors closed for some reason."

"Emergency drop procedure." Ludwig muttered before he climbed up to the exit door of the escape pod. From the windows, he saw that the pod was half buried in the ground. "Please keep to the sides of the pod." said Ludwig. "And please move Trent to a closer position to the exit." Without questioning, Elizabeth did just that with Shirley, her younger sister with spiky pink hair who after a long state of shock decided to help her. When this was done, Ludwig opened the door and a small river of dirt flowed into the pod before ceasing just as fast. Ludwig poked his head out momentarily before coming back inside.

"If you have stored any supplies here, then please bring them along." he explained. "The castle is a bit distant."

One by one the second generation took one of the packs they had placed earlier in the central compartment and climbed out of the pod. "Please take turns holding...ah, you have awakened." Ludwig corrected himself, as Trent nodded in response. "The castle has crashed some distance from our location. Please bring some supplies with your person before we begin the trek."

Following his siblings lead, Trent took a pack for himself before climbing out last and looking at the landscape around him. Everywhere, the ground was crumbled up and heaved in piles that lay scattered across the landscape. The sky had grown darker, covered with a thick volcanic gloom that stretched in all directions. To their north was the former mountainous western border of the Old Kingdom, now a range of volcanoes belching out a wall of fire and ash towards the north and hence to the sea. The Koopahari Pass was now covered with lava flows that spread into the valley.

"What's over those mountains?" Shirley asked, always liking to see new things.

"The Old Kingdom." Ludwig said. "The kingdom of your grandfather, Bowser. I suspect it now lies in a snowy and ashen ruin. It will soon become inhospitable as the new north pole is now located within that region." The sound of distant voices however made him turn to the south. Far off, Ludwig could see a large band of people making their way northwest towards the now southwestern crags. He guessed they were from the Bambesh Valley looking for a new home, but that served to remind him of the danger he and his children were now in, remembering his previous stint as monarch and the people's hatred of him.

"Trent." Ludwig called, making a motion with his claw. Trent took off his backpack, which had a small wand sticking out of the top. Unzipping it, he took out a handful of standard Magikoopa wands and handed a few to his father. "Here." Ludwig gave a wand to each of his daughters. "You will need those more than your brothers."

"Why's that? I could fight better!" Xavier claimed.

"Because those lesser Koopa's of this world will go to great lengths to achieve what they desire." Ludwig explained. "This includes the ravaging of young female Koopas." Xavier fell quiet after that.

"Eww! No way! That's never going to happen!" Shirley exclaimed.

"I hope this is the case." said Ludwig. "It is regrettable that I have not taught the proper magic disciplines previously, but upon our trek back to the castle I shall review a few core principles that should suffice for your protection. Migrants are beginning to approach from the southwest and I have left a negative legacy amongst my former peoples, one that none of you should carry but may have to defend yourselves against nonetheless." He gave the remaining wands to his sons before zipping up the pack and giving it back to Trent.

A light went off around Ludwig, and he promptly took out his wand to find his gem blinking. After a moment, it went still and an image of Queen Kylie Koopa emerged above it.

"Holy crap you're awake!" she exclaimed. "Virtual hugs!"

"Mommy!" The kids all went off at once. Ludwig smiled. "Quite pleased to see you in good condition, Queen Kylie."

"You guys are my everything, thank you so much for being okay." smiled Kylie. "Wait...where's Tommy and Amy?"

"They were in a storage when all the doors closed." Elizabeth replied. "I couldn't get them out."

"The one I told you to take the supplies out of?" Kylie asked.

"Yeah, the door thing said something like 'override' when I tried to open it." Elizabeth said.

"It seems the emergency altitude protection system was activated." said Ludwig. "Is the power currently available to your person now?"

"Um, no." Kylie replied.

"Then the doors must be opened manually." said Ludwig. "Under the door's touchpad is a panel outlined within the walls construction. Remove this panel to find a crank, which then may be used to open the space. I must advise however that the torque may be somewhat...tight."

Kylie sighed. "Thanks in advance. I just hope they're alright. Are you guys headed to the castle?"

"We were about to set off towards it, yes." Ludwig confirmed.

"Well, be careful because I spotted a big wave of migrants headed northwest." Kylie warned. "I think they're heading to Lemmy's Castle."

"It seems the Bambesh Valley is in turmoil." Ludwig guessed. "Have you heard from Morton Junior?"

"No I haven't." replied Kylie. "I tried to reach him and I got nothing, so I don't know what's going on down there."

Ludwig hummed. "In any event, we must begin our journey. I will contact you if we must halt for the evening, but this shouldn't be necessary. Until then." They smiled at each other.

"I'll see you later guys!" Kylie said before the image disappeared and the gem went silent.

"Now then, it is best to avoid the migrants as much as possible. Therefore, we must set out immediately and keep a quickened pace in order to keep ahead of the first pack. We shall then double back to the castle from the north at a distance." Ludwig explained. "I ask that you each take turns caring for Samantha and to help her walk. Are each of you ready?" No vocal responses came, but there were several nods. "Then let us be off." With that, Ludwig put his wand away, turned and started off towards the west northwest and his children followed him one by one, some eying the people far to their south.


	2. 47: Keep Going

Underneath a massive pile of ice within the former arctic circle of Mushroom World was a castle commonly known as Lemmy's Castle, now surrounded by shouting and noise. Within the underground hangar were many people with icepicks hacking away at the entrance to the ground level, occasionally stepping aside to make way for falling ice chunks. It was Lemmy Koopa's plan to break the ice below to hopefully shift the ice downwards and help clear the main ground entrance above. Looking down at the hangar from a higher floor through a line of windows, he suddenly jumped through a door frame and slid down an icy ramp formally a stairwell until he jumped again and landed with a yelp. It didn't matter if it was the end of the world. He was still going to have fun.

"Hey Lemmy dude." said a blue Pianta walking up to him. "The ice is melting man. It's been getting real hot out there."

"Can I call you Steve?" Lemmy asked.

"Uh, no! That's not my name!" replied a flabbergasted Pianta.

Lemmy laughed to himself. "I'm kidding! I don't know your real name so I made one up."

"It's Harold." huffed the Pianta. "Harold Pianta. Hey listen. The ice is melting, and we're getting a pool at the bottom. See?" He pointed at the small pool of water at the bottom of the hangar.

"Yeah, it's supposed to melt." said Lemmy. "We're in warm climates now."

"Oh yeah?" Harold asked, not really knowing much about their new location. "So this is all going to melt soon?"

"Yeah, but it's better to hack it than have it totally flood this place right?" Lemmy pointed out. "Cause we still have things down here, but if the water gets bad then we salvage what we can." He shrugged. "Not much else to do."

One of Lemmy's wands started to glow at that moment. "Got to go!" He jumped his way back up the icy stairwell to the room he was just in earlier. He whipped out the Wand of Koopa, supposedly the most powerful wand in the world and found the gem blinking on top. After a moment, it stopped and projected an image of Queen Kylie Koopa above it.

"Oh, it's good to see you okay." Kylie sighed.

"Yeah. What about you?" Lemmy asked.

"Just some booboos but I'll be fine." Kylie replied. "I found the escape pod my children were in, and Ludwig. They are...well..."

"Well what?"

"Two are missing." Kylie said bluntly.

Lemmy frowned. "I'm sure they're somewhere."

"I mean, the whole room was blasted open." Kylie continued. "The wall is basically gone and they're not inside...I haven't told Ludwig about it yet."

"Ludwig's awake?" That was news.

"Yeah, he woke up earlier..." Kylie trailed off and paused for a moment. "Hey listen. If I asked you if you could let my kids live there, would you?"

Lemmy hummed to himself for a moment. "I might."

"Because the castle here crashed and I have no way of getting it off the ground right now." Kylie continued. "And I'm worried that migrants might try and sneak aboard. Since Roy took away our protection, we don't have much against them if they decide to attack, and I don't want my kids to be a part of something they didn't do."

"Well, we're kind of buried right now." said Lemmy. "A whole bunch of ice just piled right on top of us and we're trying to chisel and hack and pick out way out. No one can-" He heard multiple people call his name from below. "I got to go."

"Okay, I'll call you later." The image disappeared and blow he saw a number of people waving their hands at him. Lemmy put his wand away and made a face. "What?" he shouted back.

A variety of voices picked up. "There's people on the other side!" came one loud voice. Once again, Lemmy jumped and slid down the ice stairwell before flipping in the air and landing on his feet. "There's people outside?" he asked. He was met with a million responses at once, and instead jumped over ice chunks and made his way to their furthest progress in the ice. Reaching the end wall, he put his ear to it and listened. Nothing. "Um, hello?" he called out.

"Hello!" came a muffled voice.

"Hi! This is Lemmy Koopa. You have reached my castle!" Lemmy shouted back. "But sadly we're unavailable right now. We're buried under a huge pile of ice!"

"We're just looking for food, that's all!" came the response. "Bambesh Valley is ruined, it's a mess. We decided to come up here to see if you could help us out."

"Uh..." Lemmy thought to himself. "Well, we can't get out of here, but we're trying to make a tunnel to the surface. How many of you are there?"

"Oh..." Lemmy thought he heard other voices on the other end. "Maybe a thousand or more. I really don't know."

Lemmy made a face. Did a large part of the kingdom's population suddenly migrate to his castle? "Uh oh."

"What was that?"

"Um, I can give you food if you try and help us make a tunnel to the surface." Lemmy offered. "I think that's fair, right?"

"Alright, I'll ask around and see if anyone wants to help." came the reply.

"We're trapped in here anyway, so unless we get a tunnel made than I can't offer any food." Lemmy clarified.

"Well, you do know the ice is melting out here, right?" said the voice. "It's melting fast, it's been getting warmer since the apocalypse happened. Had a hard time with breaking ice under our feet on the way here."

"Then that's good news! This tunnel should be made in no time. If anyone has axes or picks, then please help us and we'll feed you. Dig straight to the front of the castle and yell at each other and I'm sure this will work."

"Roger." came the reply and Lemmy turned back to his men. "It looks like some will be making a tunnel from the outside!"

"Yeah, we overheard everything you said." said a monty mole. "You were yelling pretty loud."

"Oh." Lemmy's radio went off. "Hey Lemmy, we need help on the third floor!" came Toadette's voice.

"Okay!" With that he headed back upstairs and looked for Toadette's repair group as the excavation continued.

* * *

Tommy Koopa awoke only to utter a cry as he looked at the ground far below his feet. He grasped his parachute which had become entangled within a palm tree, inside of a large jungle. Needless to say, he had no idea where he was or how he got there, the only clues being the ocean to his right in the distance and a long mountain range to his left filled with volcanoes. Few trees still stood around him as many of them had fallen due to the hurricane force winds, the tsunamis that carved out the land and pyroclastic flows from the volcanoes in the range. There were no other trees immediately nearby, which meant that the only way down was to climb down.

Tommy swung his legs in the air to try and gain momentum to swing towards the trunk. The parachute began to tear along the branches, and by the time Tommy had grabbed onto the trunk it had several large holes punctured through it. With his weight, the parachute tore off and flew through the air until it danged down his back. The new counterweight pulled Tommy down and he had a hard time hanging on, his claws digging into the bark. Deciding to get down the tree as soon as possible, he carefully climbed down being cautious with his footing. However, one wrong move and he slipped and slid down it instead. With his claws acting as a brake, he reached the bottom with a thud and sat there for a moment. He was amazed he just did that without getting injured, save for his burning hands.

Tommy unhooked the straps to his parachute and stood up. The jungle was in tatters with fallen ruins and shrubs all over the landscape. He had no idea where he was and he didn't see any other signs of life around him, let alone any civilization. He felt unsure of what to do now. He was far from Amy at this point and the castle, and guessed he flew over an ocean. Yes, that he remembered. Something happened and everything went dark. Now he was inside of a ruined jungle. Tommy checked his pack and found only a few food bars with him. Crap. The severity of the situation finally dawned on him, and he needed to go look for food.

Putting the pack back on, Tommy wandered around the jungle floor, stepping over fallen trees and rocks. The wind was picking up and the clouds above traveled quickly across the sky.

"Hey you!" came a shout. Tommy turned and saw two green bipedal creatures approach him. "What the hell are you? Crawling critter? What do you do? Who do you serve?" one of them asked.

"I'm a Koopa." Tommy plainly replied.

"A Koopa? From the North? What you doing so far South?" the first one continued. "You know the King don't like foreigners so far South. He'll have your way with you if you don't put in a good word."

"I'm from the Koopa Kingdom." Tommy replied. "And I'm a son of Ludwig, so you better not hurt me because I'm sure he's going to be looking for me soon."

"Ludwig? I heard that name..." the creature thought to itself. "Hey Pete, do you know of a Ludwig?"

"Huh? Yeah, he's the...first son of that Koopa King, Bowser." Pete replied.

"Oh yeah, he's just the son of...Wahhhh!" he jumped upon the realization of what that meant. "My apologies! We don't mean to anger the house of Koopa! We have enough problems! But I have to ask, what are you doing so far South?"

"I was riding a parachute and I flew over an ocean to this place." said Tommy. "Whatever this place is."

"You are in the Kong Jungles." he said. "And we are the Kremlings of King K. Rool, the true rulers of the land."

"Okay well, I need to get back home. Do you know anything that could help?" Tommy asked.

"We could help you if you help us." the Kremling suggested.

"With what?"

"We want food." he continued. "We are starving. And we know who has some." He pointed to his left towards the ocean below. "Those troublesome Kongs have a load of it, but they do not share any of it! They will be moving away soon and we must catch them before they do!"

"We must eat." Pete added.

"Yes, if you help us, we can get you a boat." said the other. "They have one, you can take it."

"And what if I don't want to?"

"Eh, you could starve in the jungle." said Pete. "And we won't help you any more, but it's up to you."

Tommy sighed. "Fine. Let's go." Tommy relented, not liking the idea but finding few other choices at the moment.

* * *

Ashfall now blinded their sight of the trail into the erupting volcanic range ahead of them. The three were adorned with hooded cloaks, with Vincent and Beth using the black cloaks of the UmNaru to double as camouflage. Even then, the ash began to burn at their hands and faces and they struggled to keep up with their father. At length, Roy turned around and faced his kids. Vincent looked tired trying to carry his pack along with his immobile sister on his back.

"Getting bad." Roy remarked, reaching into his pack. "Here, take these." He handed Vincent a pair of black leather gloves before giving a smaller pair to Beth. "The ash will burn. Try to stay covered. Another thing..." He looked back from where they came for a moment. "Don't let anyone see your hands. The symbol on the left hand, don't let anyone see it. No exceptions."

The kids said nothing as Roy turned back around to look at the path ahead of them, now quickly becoming covered with ash. "We'll cut out way through here. Come on." He then continued forward, and Vincent sighed to himself, still not believing it was possible to get through the range. Eventually they reached a rocky alcove that overlooked the lands below, with the volcanoes and smoke now dangerously close. "We camp here." Roy said, putting his pack down. Suddenly, he turned and with one swift motion unsheathed a hunting knife and threw it into the distance. It hit a stray goomba in the head, killing it instantly. "Supper." he muttered before going to retrieve it.

* * *

Vincent awoke early the next morning inside a makeshift tent with a sense of restlessness. He looked over at Beth who was still asleep. Getting up, he looked at the scene outside and found that a river of lava had appeared below them during the night, covering the path they had wished to take. It was like he thought: the range was too unpredictable and dangerous to cross and he wondered why his dad refused to enter that passage to the north. If he was the Earth King, then it shouldn't be a problem, right? Vincent turned back to grab his cloak in the corner when he noticed that Beth was not breathing. Instantly, he was on her trying to pump air into her stomach, but her pale face made no movement and her body was stiff.

"Come on, Beth!" he shouted, now feeling helpless. "Why...?" He collapsed on her, unable to do anything else. Beth had passed away during the night. Why did people have to die? Why did everyone he loved go away? Was he not deserving? No, he was and knew that the family he had deserved his love too. Then why was all of this being taken away from him? Within the privacy of his tent, he let out what had accumulated since his torturous days under the UmNaru, sick and tired of all the pain.

He did not know how much time had passed, but after a fountain of tears he found the will to stand up and breathe deeply. He was still alive and as long as he was alive he could help others who needed it most. Yes, Beth was not his fault as he now realized. They did what they could, but she needed immediate medical help which was not available. Now that his family was mostly dead, he had a growing urge to find his own.

Vincent covered Beth's body with her cloak then walked outside the tent. He found his father not far away upon a large rock overlooking the south, facing away from him and smoking a cigar in silence. Neither said anything for a while.

"Beth's...gone." Vincent finally blurted out.

"Yeah." Roy muttered. "Saw..." He exhaled a breath of smoke which failed in comparison to the ash that billowed up above him to his right.

"Can't really bury her...do we burn her?" Vincent asked.

"Yup." Lost in thought, Roy had his own share of problems. He knew Beth wouldn't have made it without serious medical care and wasn't surprised by the outcome. It was why he took the shortest path to the new kingdom for her. The ocean would've frozen her and the other route was unimaginable for her.

Vincent had brought out Beth's body in the meantime and looked through it as Roy continued to ponder to himself. At this rate, there was no good way through the crags now that the trails were wiped out. Now what?

"Do we still have to go this way?" Vincent asked, echoing his thoughts. Roy stood up with a groan and looked out over the ocean, now frozen with a growing layer of ice. "There were more roads through than the Koopahari. Figured one would be open but...yeah. It was the best route for her, the quickest for Beth to live. Ocean is freezing up now. Couldn't go that way." He looked at his former daughter. "Doesn't matter now. She had a bad condition, was lucky to make it this far." With that, Roy unleashed a barrage of flames that engulfed her body then stood in silence for a moment. "The eternal flame burns on!" he cried out.

"...the eternal flame burns on." Vincent echoed, watching the same thing happen again. He remembered his father's advice and knew he had to keep going. He also knew that his family beyond the veil was watching him now, or so he read in the scrolls. It certainly felt that way at least.

After Beth was burned to ashes, Roy began to pack up his camping gear, but said nothing.

"I hope we're not going in there." Vincent said.

Roy huffed. "Fine. You choose."

"The north pass." Vincent promptly replied. "That valley you talked about."

"You sure?" Roy asked.

"I think it's the only way out." said Vincent. "It's better than this."

"Don't know about that." Roy said. "We can make it there quick, can use Beth's share of the food so we're not losing much. But like I said, the place is haunted by the undead."

"And you said that the King of the Koopas can pass though it." Vincent stated.

"Only the King of the Koopas." Roy corrected. "That means they wont bother me, but they will bother you. Did they teach you fight off an entire army?"

"No, but..." Vincent help up two high end Magikoopa wands. "I kept Beth's wand."

"Eh..." Roy muttered and walked about. "It's not really about the wand, but the skill behind the user. If you can kill a ton of undead in one blast then you might have a chance. But it's not just soldiers: the kings are there too, your ancestors. I'll have to defend you the whole way through. Right now, I don't think you're ready to fight a king."

"Hey, I fought off Narec before." Vincent countered. "Didn't his UmNaru group control the Earth King's in the past? I think I have a chance. It's better than going through this which doesn't look possible without hurting ourselves."

Roy grunted, unable to counter the boy's point about Narec. "It's your choice, not mine." he reminded him, packing away the last of his tent. "Get your stuff together. We'll follow this ridge to the north."

Vincent nodded and began to pack away his own tent, carefully rolling up the scrolls he had been studying. Maybe he was being overconfident with himself and their new destination, but he shook it off. He had to find any way to keep going and leave the pain behind him.

* * *

The sun, now a pale light in the volcanic gloom that surrounded most of the world shone through the narrow stone window in front of him. King Iggy Koopa was alive again, but not yet living. Too many people called him back and after consulting the departing souls of Earth, decided to return to his incarnation to continue his lessons.

Iggy blinked, and moved his neck upwards, trying to regain control of his body. He had been gone for a shorter time, but his appendages remained stiff and the lack of blood flow was noticeable. Still, the blood began pumping faster than the last time and after a minute he managed to move the arm that held the Spirit Wand, the device that kept his body in a relatively preserved state. But the wand was acting strangely, not just the glowing mass of light that it was supposed to be, but a peculiar algorithm of reconstruction and deconstruction of possibility vortices that shuffled about the wand's exterior endlessly. Iggy had never seen such a state before and wondered what it meant. It did resemble the transformation of wand polarity upon the initiation of a monarch however...

An image then entered his mind that lay physically manifest just outside his chamber. Given it's improbability, he wasn't sure if he believed it, but the neurons did not lie. What did she do?

Grabbing hold of the armrests, Iggy forced himself to stand up, resembling an old Koop who had been watching television for too long. His legs complained of the weight but they sustained him, albeit in a rather wobbly fashion. Immediately after Iggy felt his senses restored to him and saw that he was in a small chamber with a single stone seat. The memories flooded back and he remembered being washed into the place by the pole shift tsunami before losing consciousness. Replaying his journey into the heavens, he remembered being told that he had landed upon the Seat of the World.

"Ahhhhhhhhhhh..." he let out a long exasperated sigh of remembrance as the dots connected themselves to full understanding. The spirit of a previous wife had come to say hello and helped explained his situation before her departure to her new life form, many light years away. It was a welcome sight given this life's frailties and obstacles, but that made him remember the image he saw before.

He tried moving his stiff legs, which seemed to be made more of lead than flesh and bone. "Aauugh! Mooove!" Slowly, he plopped his feet towards the window as his Spirit Wand continued to construct and deconstruct itself endlessly. Peering outside, he saw the desert, now wet with the residue of the tsunami previous and littered with debris in every direction. A short distance away to his right was what appeared to be a small garden growing out of the sand, somehow sustaining itself despite all the factors against it. To one perimeter were a large group of people looking at the spectacle and chatting amongst themselves. They seemed uncertain as to what to do.

On an impulse, Iggy jumped out of the window and sailed nearly 120 feet through the air before landing on his two feet. The wet sand heightened his senses and so were the people's in front of him, now silencing their chatter and watching the weird Koopa approach the strange garden. It was a weird thing to attempt this when the seeds could be rescued by moving the debris in hallway AX23B by casting an Earth Transmutation spell, then using the same spell to knock down the locked and now broken door in the seed vault. But no, desperation had taken hold of her mind and there she now stood, metamorphosed into a large chestnut tree with her physical outline apparent in it's trunk. All around her the beautiful symmetry of nature blossomed reflecting the order of the universe. But Iggy noticed a bush of Yoshi berries nearby and he was brought back to that time aboard the Galaxy when they ate at a Yoshi themed restaurant together as they planned out their survival sites. This garden wasn't just reflecting nature...

Iggy's eyes darted to a group of children who had taken a few of the fruit from the garden. "STAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAPPPPP!" he screamed, and the children dropped the fruit in fear and stumbled back towards their parents. "Do not eat her!"

"Is that really Penny?" an old man in blue robes asked. Apparently it was Merlin.

"By eating her, you absorb her emotions and thoughts." Iggy explained. "Tell me, do you really want her insanity?"

"No." Merlin put bluntly.

"But we're hungry!" cried one Koopa child. Iggy did not respond, too busy trying to figure out how to unravel the spiral Penny got herself into. It was a legend amongst those working nature magic that people could be turned into trees of various kinds, but the spell had long been lost despite years of research trying to uncover it. Evidently, Penny must have stumbled across it. Since she wasn't a standard magic user, that meant only one thing.

"I've got the clue, so don't touch anything until I get back!" Iggy warned. "Because I can see you." But before he warped, he couldn't help but try something. "Are you there?" he thought.

"Yes." came the response. "Yes, I am here. I've waited a long time for you, Iggy Koopa." It was Penny's voice, but distorted. On the tree, a shining brilliance hung from one of the branches in a similar state to his wand. A thought hit him then: did Penny's new physical state disrupt the wands programming? But then what about that voice?

Iggy looked around him and shifted his perspective to the vibrations of evil that still lay across the planet. Shades of black covered various areas, the typical places, but a surprise came when the ground below Genlic suddenly darkened and his vision became filled with stars. "Who are you?" Iggy asked aloud.

"Pathetic humans have no place among the divine hierarchy of the Koopas." said the voice, now much deeper. "Such a poor decision must be dealt with as the Spirit King's judgment allowed."

Iggy had not seen this apparition below Genlic until now and wondered if Penny had indeed broken the wand's boundaries of operation. If so, then this entity was invisible to him otherwise by an unknown spell. Its mind remained inaccessible to him as well, refusing to give up its secrets. Why would breaking the Spirit Wand allow this evil to be seen? Shouldn't it be the other way around?

"You didn't answer my question." Iggy stated. "Who are you?"

"Quite right." said the voice. "You do not deserve to know after your insolence. Now with the world open to me, I will fix what you have broken."

The tree suddenly became surrounded by a dark light and plants around it began to darken and wither. Iggy prepared a spell with the Spirit Wand, but nothing charged up and it remained in its current state. That was not good. Putting it away, he took out his personal wand and cast a spell on Penny. A white encasement shield surrounded the tree and spread throughout all the vegetation in the garden, with everything becoming frozen inside crystal like lattices.

"Get back inside the complex!" Iggy ordered. "This is beyond any of you! Merlin, try to form a barrier around the temple." Merlin nodded and Iggy immediately teleported into the library inside the Temple of Erzembar where he had seen its namesake resting on a table.

"Thank heavens." Erzembar exclaimed. "Penny has-"

"Where is the spell?" Iggy asked quickly.

"Two tables over." he replied, and Iggy wasted no time pouring over the ancient document. It was what it said it was, a spell to turn living sentient beings into trees. The legends were true, but Iggy could not use the spell as it was intended. Instead, he needed to cast it in reverse which made the situation twice as difficult.

"Can you use time alteration with this?" Iggy asked, referencing a gray spectrum spell.

"No, the effects are meant to be permanent." Erzembar replied. "In order to truly reverse the spell, a deconstruction spell from the black spectrum must be employed."

"So that and restore form could work." Iggy said aloud. "That's two spells at once, three counting the shield."

"Yes." Erzembar merely replied and Iggy sighed. "I'll have to mix the two. Fine. Do you know who I'm facing here?"

Erzembar was silent and Iggy scoffed. "Why am I not surprised?" That told him everything he needed to know. With the spell memorized, Iggy warped back to the makeshift garden where the encasement shield was seen with several cracks growing outside the crystal of its main target, the tree. Iggy inhaled and went to work with the transmutation spell, and inside the encasement shielding the plant life was seen growing in reverse, petals unblooming and stems retreating back into the wet sand. But the blackness increased in ferocity, attempting to beat Iggy at his own game. The shield cracked further and life decayed at a faster rate. Chanting the second spell, Iggy attempted to expedite the process as the life of the garden converged into the tree, which then transformed into a white light. Then in a flash the garden disappeared and the light molded into Penny's shape, and her naked form fell to the sand with the Spirit Wand falling shortly after her. The wand reconstructed itself back into its split polarity arrangement and immediately after, the black evil disappeared leaving no trace of its presence behind. Everything seemed back to normal, but Iggy felt concerned. That was the first time he had seen Koopa, the ancient ancestor of his entire lineage who first originated upon The Great Destroyer, Naru. Remembering the words of the Kappur back at Genlic some time ago, Iggy knew that it could be no one else as the UmNaru's minds could be read openly. And yet now he could not see the entity below Genlic with the wand restored to its former state. He remembered Lemmy's vision when the Wand of Marthos was destroyed...this must have been the same being.

Iggy's thoughts were interrupted when he heard people cheering behind him. Turning he realized that Penny was naked face down and immediately teleported her into the main chamber of Erzembar. He needed to focus on the most pressing needs and put what he saw aside for now. "Okay, you've seen enough of her. So food was a problem." said Iggy. "Was, was a problem. Give me about half an hour and you will have food."

"Can we eat it this time?" one cynical fellow asked.

"Yes, the food will be fully edible and nutritious for your bodily systems." replied Iggy. "Now, I must activate Erzembar and heal Penny so...you'll know when I'm back." With that, he teleported himself into the main chamber of Erzembar, which had done fairly well through the shift save for a pile of sand in one corner. The majority was as he left it however and Penny lay on an extended table built into the left wall. She was breathing, but otherwise was unconscious. Iggy fiddled with the medical mechanism and hit a few switches, but nothing worked. He realized that he needed to re-power Erzembar as soon as possible. With the pole shift now past, the Kermillion fault would only suffer aftershocks which would diminish in time.

However, Iggy's thoughts turned to Larry and Mona and was immediately surprised by what he heard.

"Probably two of them." said Larry, now almost fully healed.

"Well, that's all humans can do." said Mona. "Usually it's one, rarely more than that. We're not powerhouses like you Koopa's are."

"At least it worked." said Larry. "You know Bowser tried it with Peach so many times and never succeeded. It probably has to do with that wand. But it's alright, I can wait for the rest of them."

"I'm not a baby factory you know." Mona folded her arms. Larry held up something with his hands. "Okay, fine." Mona continued. "I mean, it's not a big deal when it's just two small eggs. It beats having an infant ripping open your love tunnel any day."

"Your version of fighting a war, basically." Larry commented. "I just need someone to inherit my legacy. Life is really short and my little fall showed me that, I'm just a mortal. Yeah, I don't say that much but that little event woke me up. I can't just slip out of this shell with no one to follow."

"Hey, it's not just you." Mona said. "I always wanted a daughter, so I couldn't say no when you popped the question. Even if she's not fully human, I can live with it. Plus there's something sweet about going down on a cripple."

"See? Now you don't have a problem with it." Larry pointed out. "It was too kinky to refuse."

Mona huffed. "Well I'm not gonna lie..."

Iggy made a face. They were expecting? Was that even possible? Well it was now, even though Koopas and humans were known to be incompatible. Maybe the fact that Mona was the Blood Queen changed things since her DNA had been altered somewhat with Koopa genetics being inserted into her genome upon her ascension. More importantly, Iggy didn't know how much of a threat Koopa would be to Genlic, considering it lay below the shelter, never mind what it just did to Penny earlier. None of his other siblings knew yet, but it seemed Larry and Mona had made a choice regardless and Iggy reminded himself that they didn't know and needed to respect that. A thought came to him then: was Larry trying to force his hand? Iggy looked at Penny and wondered for a moment, but quickly shook his head. He didn't even know if Penny wanted kids or not. Regardless, he needed to get the place back up and running.

Teleporting back into the library, Iggy grabbed Erzembar and with his other hand rerolled the legendary scroll. "We need to start this place back up." Iggy said. "I'm going to warp down to the core and I want you to tell me what needs to be repaired before I start it up."

"Very well." said Erzembar. "But be advised that the primary lifting mechanism for the main complex appears to be disabled and may require repair work."

Iggy said nothing as he teleported himself inside the core of Erzembar. The circular door to the core remained open from his last visit, which felt like years ago. The room itself had survived with no major problems, save for a few small cracks in the walls. In the center, the pedestal that held the globe of Erzembar was also intact along with the power transceiver above it. However, all around this was a varied mess. The intricate matrix of crystals that surrounded the center was decoupled in places, with some crystals unsheathed from their holdings and lying about on the floor. Some remained intact and others were broken. The holders themselves largely looked passable, being fine and nimble in their construction.

"It seems many diodes must be replaced or repaired before full operation may commence." said Erzembar. "Please place me within the radiance column in the center of the room, and I shall list what must be repaired."

After doing this, Erzembar's globe glowed white and a few of the parts made movements throughout the room. "Main operational capacity offline: insufficient power input. Overall structural matrix sub optimal, but operational. Missing double terminated clear quartz on the following arrays: 1B, 3C, 3D, 4F, 5H, 5I, 2L. Charged replacement required. New zircon core needed for Matrix F. Arrays remain structurally stable, no changes in kyanite alloy makeup. No black spectrum signatures detected. Replacements located in Room 16XB as programmed during construction."

Iggy teleported to 16XB and found himself surrounded by a variety of crystals and other minerals that lay ordered in rows alongside each wall. Above them on the ceiling were labels written in ancient; it seemed Erzembar had planned for every possible scenario. The quartz was by far the largest quantity of crystal or stone and they came in different cuts and different colors, some charged and some not. Iggy took seven of the clear charged quartz crystals and looked for a piece of zircon along a wall of assorted minerals. After a while, he found a piece of zircon among a small collection of them and teleported back into the core. Beginning with 1B, Iggy fastened the new quartz into the arrays and tightened their harnesses, and they each glowed to life upon successful installation. Locating Matrix F, Iggy wondered where the zircon replacement actually went.

"Upon the base of Matrix F is a removable cover." Erzembar explained. "Please remove the 3rd zircon core and replace this with the new core." On the floor was a central foundation for the arrays of Matrix F. Removing the cover, Iggy saw four zircon cores within, with the third sporting a crack down its middle. After replacing the broken core, the matrix came to life and so did the others as Iggy put the cover back on.

"Resynchronizing Matrix F diodes." The matrix spun around the center separately from the others in some act of recalibration. "Synchronization complete. Resynchronizing all matrices." This time, every matrix array spun about Iggy who ducked to avoid the numerous arrays spinning about him. "Resynchronization complete. All arrays and matrices operational. Please exit the core to begin radiance emissions."

Iggy exited the core through the circular doorway on the other end and closed it behind him. Immediately, the circular dials on the door began to move around within the door's circumference and the tracks they traveled upon lit up along with various numbers and cryptics.

"Door sealed. Beginning radiance emissions." There was the sound of pressure and the dials spun wildly about the door. "Re-pressurization complete. Reconnecting nodes. Mark 7A, Matrix 8F calibrated to function. Mark 7A, Matrix 3F calibrated to function..." It repeated in a similar manner, so Iggy decided to teleport back inside the main complex where Penny lay. The floor lights had come on, but the medical center had not. The start up sequence was far longer than Iggy had imagined and he tried to control his patience. The wall sconces lit up next, outlining the ancient murals in the rock. After a moment, the main lights finally came on along with his seat in the center of the room. A whir and the medical apparatus powered to life. Iggy wasted no time moving Penny's body into the restoration chamber which lay on its side next to the table.

"Here we go again..." Iggy said to himself as the chamber closed and concentric rings spun around her. The display indicated around 3 hours of restoration time. It was too much like the time after he had cast the God's Wrath spell upon the UmNaru. Back then, he never got a chance to explore all of Erzembar which he knew was much larger than the main chamber he now stood in. But with the pole shift now past, Iggy believed it was time to see the complex in its entirety.

"Hey! Erzembar!" Iggy called out. The large metallic device on the far wall lit to life. "Main chamber vocalization commenced. Yes, King Iggy."

"It's time to see...all of you." Iggy chuckled. "Let's activate the whole complex!"

"This request would not be refused, but I would advise caution." Erzembar replied. "The complex was built specifically for those in the white spectrum, therefore those in lesser vibrations may feel discomforting effects while in its vicinity. The only alleviations would be to increase the entities vibrational level or to leave for a new area. The other effect would be akin to attracting flies to a bright light."

"I know the UmNaru would try something on this place." said Iggy. "Whole complex or not, they would attack me anyway. Then you have the Bambesh Valley to the north which is a mess, and my brother ran off so I have to look after it. I think the sphere of this place would extend that far if everything was activated. It kind of stinks for those already here, but most were on a pilgrimage to help better themselves anyway...yeah, let's do it."

"As you wish." The main complex rumbled before a loud grinding sound was heard. "There is a problem with the second bulk lift." Erzembar explained. "The main structure is unable to reach the surface as a result."

"That's right..." Iggy muttered, remembering Erzembar's words from before. He guessed that he would need to teleport to the bowels of the place, something he hadn't done yet. Using his wand, his discerned with a planar vision a good spot to move to after scouting the area, then teleported there shortly after. He was met with a giant toothed track, with both sides notched inwards to prevent slippage of the wheel, but in this case it had done little to stop the wheel from leaving the track. However, the wheel was still barely on it which was good news as repairing it would be easier. Theoretically, all he would have to do is slide the wheel back into place, but the question was how. A thought about wind magic came to mind, but Iggy quickly dismissed the idea. This was at least several tons if not more. He needed Earth magic and another thought came: what would Morton do?

Iggy recalled what he knew about Earth magic and decided to put it to the test. Casting a Move Earth spell with his own wand, he directed it towards the wheel and tried to push it back into place with his hands. However, it only moved a few inches before the spell dissipated. He was going to need more force than that. Morton's mind space was filled with chaos with selfish intent and Iggy felt uncomfortable asking for his help. He did remember Morton's favorite weapon being the hammer, and Iggy's creative gears started turning.

Backing up, the Spirit King cast a conjure spell and moments later a gigantic hammer manifested before him, about 25 feet long. Iggy could barely lift the handle, never mind the head on the other end. Dropping it, he enchanted the head of the hammer with a medium strength Move Earth spell (the highest strength he knew from the top of his head) and immediately after cast an anti gravity spell on the hammer itself. Putting away the wand, Iggy picked up the gigantic hammer with ease and lined himself with his target. Swinging, he hit the wheel and a large metallic sound reverberated through the complex, but the wheel had moved about a foot this time around. This was going to work!

Iggy swung again and hit the wheel again, moving it about another foot. After several more hits, the wheel suddenly locked into place and all the wheels about him began to turn upwards. The problem seemed to be fixed. Dispelling the hammer, Iggy teleported back into the main chamber, successfully completing the strangest repair job of his life.

"No abnormalities detected." reported Erzembar. "It seems the problem has been solved. Main complex now breaking the surface."

Iggy's thoughts turned to the survivors outside. "Everyone stay close to the temple!" he telepathically relayed. "Things are coming out of the sand!" Indeed, only a few moments later and what appeared to be a sand dune suddenly rose out of the ground, climbing higher until the sand parted aside revealing the pyramidal complex of Erzembar rising back to the surface. Once the four obelisks surrounding the pyramid rose from the ground, the complex slowed until it fully stopped with a dull clang.

"Most systems report operational." said Erzembar. "Several systems report caution for recommended repairs, however this is not necessary at this time. The thought sphere is disabled due to the adjustment that took place prior to the pole shift."

Iggy climbed up onto his seat in the middle of the room and fiddled with a few controls. Indeed, the sphere below him was just as he left it: shattered and broken. He missed that thing. "I'll fix that later. Now, let's bring up the whole complex!"

"Very well. Restarting full surfacing procedure." In front of Iggy, a series of holographs appeared at various locations in the air and each were seen to be moving upward at their own pace. Looking through the walls, Iggy saw sand rising in accordance with the holographs, as if he were giving the desert sand dunes overnight. But the sand broke and many buildings were revealed, some square, some rectangular, some circular. The architecture seemed similar to the surrounding ruin: old rock with numerous carvings and depictions, and many of the walls retained their color writing as if it had been buried only yesterday. All of the doors and windows were sealed shut with metallic looking doors and devices. Courts and walkways rose, along with long stone light posts with each housing a singular crystal inside. Dozens of buildings rose one after the other; it was as if Erzembar had built a small city for himself and his followers to escape the evils of the world.

"Outer vibratory network activating." Erzembar said. Large crystals, some 10 feet high and stationed around the courtyards of buildings were seen blinking to life around the complex, emitting strong vibrations in the white magic spectrum. "Powering Blocks 1 through 20." A chunk of the complex suddenly lit to life. "Powering Blocks 21 through 50." The same thing occurred up until Block 200. "Power grid nominal, no malfunctions detected. Recalibrating Shrine of the Creator harmonics. Octave set. Recalibrating healing temple harmonics. Default frequency set to 432 Hz. Detecting current planet core resonance...ratio set. Residential complexes report two malfunctions in the window mechanisms. All other building mechanics pass inspection. Erzembar complex now activated. For errors, please ask for specifics. Would you like to activate the Global Crystalline Network?"

"What...is that?" Iggy asked.

"The Global Crystalline Network is a series of 8 to 10 foot crystals situated around the world for the purpose of negating the black spectrum in any given area. It provides a balance to the often provocative UmNaru and their quest for global dominance. It is a passive force not meant for direct conflict, but may be used as such."

"No." said Iggy, "That would also tip the scales. People need a balanced environment right now to choose their orientation. I'll use it when I have to, but for now leave it mostly off...except for detecting enemy movement. Do not have them react to anything. Though I wonder...do the crystals underneath Lemmy's Castle have anything to do with this?"

"Yes, the castle of Beneth is a part of this network." replied Erzembar.

Iggy hummed. "Good to know, but my answer is still no."

"As you wish." said Erzembar. Iggy sighed. "Okay, now the seeds. It looks like the garden will need some work but they can be grown in here for now I believe."

"That is correct." said Erzembar. "A greenhouse lies just below the seed vault for your use. Incoming weather analysis indicates a static pattern of drizzle throughout this latitude for the foreseeable future, therefore an indoor garden is advised."

"I'll have to show them around." Iggy muttered. Looking towards their group mind space, he watched their reactions to the new crystal network. "I'll go talk to them now." "Hey guys!" he telepathically relayed before teleporting to the Temple of Marthos, now surrounded by buildings of various kinds. "Thanks for being patient. I have the seeds, but the weather report looks bad. Basically there's going to be a lot of drizzle for a while. But! Erzembar has an indoor greenhouse to use so we can use that instead. Now, all this!" Iggy spread out his arms. "There's a few buildings that count as residential areas, so you can live there if you want. There's also rooms inside Erzembar that can be used now that the pole shift is over. Yes, there was some damage done, many of the spots are minor. I did fix a major problem so the whole place can at least move now. You might feel angry that I didn't choose Erzembar over Marthos, and its because there's a fault line that runs nearby the main complex..." He pointed to the pyramid behind him. "...and even if it's minor, I didn't want to risk it."

"Should've went in there in the first place." said one koopa, clearly irritated. "I don't know why you had us drown in this other pyramid."

Iggy nodded. The sphere of white magic that now radiated over the whole area was beginning to have an effect. Considering it contained the true vibrations of love, the reaction was not very surprising.

"Considering the damage that Erzembar was dealt even before the shift, I decided not to risk it." Iggy said.

"Except more people wouldn't have died if we went to Erzembar." the koopa continued.

"I'll be frank with you." Iggy started. "People were going to die regardless-"

"Except you messed up and didn't put us in the safest spot." he said, cutting Iggy off. "So who's gonna pay for my girl now, huh? Cause that wasn't my fault!"

"If you want to point fingers instead of trying to survive, then that's your choice." said Iggy. "But it's helping no one."

"You've barely helped us since we arrived!" came another shout.

"I gave you a garden and some seeds. You came with your own. The garden got washed out, but I have some more. What's the problem?" Iggy asked, getting annoyed.

"We've barely had enough to eat! Why can't we get a little more food?" asked a purple toad.

"Oh, excuse me?" Iggy started. "Did you expect this to be a McKoopa's where I just give you food to eat free of charge? A survival site is not a place to get free hot meals. If you came here expecting things to be easy and soft and comfortable then you can pack your bags and get out. I'm not here to cater to your every need, I'm here to give you a roof over your heads and to help get you started on fending for yourself. I did all of this. If you want to make your own colony and be called king then by all means, leave. I'd rather have constructive people here anyway."

Considering the clenched teeth around him, Iggy guessed the radiance field was working its wonders. Not all were irritated however and other shouts came for everyone to calm down. "Guys, we have clean running water." said another toad. "In the middle of the desert, and you're complaining! We have a whole town to ourselves and you're complaining! Why don't we do our parts and make this an awesome place to live..."

"Once this idiot pays for all the deaths he caused!" the koopa continued, not relenting.

"I'm not going to make up for something I did not cause." Iggy responded. Immediately, the koopa pulled a knife and rushed towards the Spirit King, who simply held out his hand and unleashed a purify spell on him, similar to a much watered down God's Wrath spell. The koopa cried in agony as his body burned from all his hatred, and from his depolarization from the selfish orientation.

"You are obviously service to self." Iggy stated. "You are leaving this place, now." Others however stepped in for him and tried to attack, but Iggy responded in like kind and they all collapsed to the ground screaming and clutching their heads. "The service to self will be purged from this region." Iggy declared. "Unfortunately, this conflict was inevitable."

"You're just going to let them go?" Merlin asked.

"Of course. This isn't the place for them." Iggy said. "But they have that other choice, to try and attack me again. If they try that, then I won't be so nice next time." He turned to them. "These are your choices: to leave and never return or to attack me and probably die. I won't shoot your tail if you do leave, so the choice is yours." Iggy ended the spell on them, and many immediately got up and bolted into the desert. But a handful also got up and lunged themselves toward Iggy with knives and even a sword, but Iggy stepped aside and unleashed a more powerful version of his spell from earlier, and this time they cried as a blast of whiteness melted their skins away and all evil within them was purged. They dropped to the ground, now withered corpses with much of their flesh burned away.

"We'll get the bodies." a red toad said.

"No, I got it." Iggy insisted, before unleashing a river of white flame that ravaged the corpses in its wake, devouring them all. "Not even their ashes will remain."

"Good, we can finally get this food thing going." said the red toad.

"Is there a reason why irritation has increased for some people?" Merlin asked.

"I activated a radiance field in the white spectrum." Iggy explained. "The service to self hate that. Those who remain undecided might feel irritated too, but the choice is with them. This is going to be a place for those who dwell in the light, or service to others and even the undecided might find it to their liking, though I imagine most would not. As long as we live from the heart and focus on what's in front of us and take action, we should be fine. Now then, I'll show the rest of you where the garden in Erzembar is. There's a teleportation system around here...come walk with me and I'll show you." Iggy turned and walked down one of the new paths followed by a large group of people.

"So what kind of garden is it?" a blue toad asked this time.

"It's a hydroponic." Iggy said. "There's a large aquifer beneath Erzembar that connects the rest of the complex up with water pipes. The main complex has several natural evaporators so the water is pure."

"So there's a mechanism that evaporates the water from the aquifer?" the blue toad asked.

"Right, and that's collected and piped throughout Erzembar for various things." said Iggy. "I noticed that these buildings are piped as well, so I'll have to find the evaporators for that."

"I have some gardening techniques I'll tell you guys about when we get there." said a green yoshi girl coming up behind them.

"Does it includes berries?" the blue toad asked and everyone went into a conversation about gardening, leaving Iggy to himself. He sighed, glad that the service to self were finally gone from the region. Now he needed to show the survivors the basics in survival and self sustainability. He was not as good as Larry or Roy even, but he would do his part at the very least. And after everything was settled, there was everyone else to take care of around the world. Many did need his help, including many in his own family, but the problem was time. Being in such a position, time was always in short supply.


	3. 48: The Many Faces of Koopa

Reaching the top of a large mound of dirt, Ludwig Von Koopa frowned at what he witnessed not far in the distance. His castle, now considerably closer than before was being surrounded by a multitude of people with a loud uproar of shouts and cries around them. With the castle crashed on an angle, he knew there would be no quick escape from this mess and that his primary plan of flying away would not work. Despite the situation, Kylie Koopa had not messaged him of her dilemma since he set out and wondered why.

"I hope mom is alright." Elizabeth said, interuppting his thoughts. "Shouldn't we get her out of there?" It seemed someone had already made up their mind. The mob was not far from a long caravan that stretched from the southwest to the northeast in front of them, with many passing by looking at the spectacle. Crossing the crowd was not an option. They would have to teleport into the castle, and considering the number of children with him who did not understand how the spell worked, that would be difficult to accomplish. Furnishing out his own wand, Ludwig attempted to contact his wife. "This is Ludwig." he said. "What is your current status?"

The face of a worried Kylie popped up above the wand. "They're all around me." said Kylie. "I'm...too scared to try."

Ludwig sighed. "We shall attempt to rescue your person despie the growing danger. They have not penetrated the outer hall as of yet, therefore this strategy should be successful without the need for conflict. It is unfortunate the castle must be abandoned, but in this scenario there is no choice."

Kylie said nothing but continued to stare at him with fearful eyes. A realization entered Ludwig's mind then. "This circumstance is of my doing and I must apologize. Being the Queen of the Earth, you are bearing the brunt of my burden, a weight unearned and undesired by yourself. Again, I will attempt a rescue and see what to do to fix my errors. In the small chance that the operation does not carry out, we will head towards Lemmy's Castle and bargain."

"Hey..." Kylie started. "Whatever happens, I love you."

Ludwig smiled. "Despite my faults, I love you as well. I will see you soon." Her face fizzled out and he was met with the rioting crowd once more. "We cannot cross this caravan of migrants." Ludwig said, turning to his children.

"Why not?" Shirley asked.

"Because of my negative history with the population I was responsible for." Ludwig explained. "This is why a large mob has congregated outside of the castle, and to look for provisions such as food I suspect. Therefore, we must teleport into the castle as a group which, in light of none of you knowing the sufficient knowledge to do so, will be greatly taxing upon my person as I must effectively teleport 6 individuals at once. To attempt to allieviate this great difficulty, please listen and follow my instructions." He showed his wand to his children. "Take the wands that I have given you." The five did as they were told. "Luckily, teleportation does not require a verbal incantation to execute. Instead, imagine with your mind that you are within the library upon the 4th level of the castle. As you are doing this, twirl your wands in this fashion." He performed a demonstration by cycling the wand head vertically. "If done correctly, your thought complex should manifest sufficiently with the aid of the spell I shall perform momentarily with the inclusion of a doubling buffer. Let us hope that I am capable of casting the teleportation spell 6 times simultaniously."

With that, he began to utter an incantation under his breath as his wand's gem glowed blue in response. His children, more or less began to twirl their wands, each thinking of their destination. They heard each of their names being called out, then with a cry they all disappeared from the mound of dirt. Inside the castle library, 6 blue lights manifested in random locations before they revealed Ludwig and company, with most of whom in a slight daze. There was a cry and Shirley was seen falling through many layers of bookshelves until they collapsed onto the floor with her. "Ow."

"Alas, you are much like your mother." Ludwig said, dismayed.

"Well, you said think of the library." Shirley said as she tried to explain herself. "So I thought of books because they have books."

"Always imagine a flat surface, no matter the destination." Ludwig explained, now looking at the rest of them. Trent had landed on a bean bag chair while the rest of them landed somewhere on the floor, with some on their feet and other's on their side. Trent got up and tried to help Samantha off of the floor. Ludwig had done a passing performance, far from perfect but it got the job done.

"This is acceptable for now." said Ludwig to himself, speaking of his and their performance. But a dull thud that shook the castle interuppted him. Opening the door to the library, Ludwig walked across the hall and peaked out a window facing the front of the castle. Down below, he witnessed people launching fireballs at the castle, presumably from fire flowers, shaking the hull with each hit. It was an attitude he knew too well, a mentality that could not be controlled until the desperation within them subsided. "We will find Kylie then promptly depart."

"What about Samantha's leg?" Elizabeth asked.

"There is no time to visit the medical bay at the moment." Ludwig said. "If you do find a medical kit within one of these halls, then I suggest taking that for the interim."

"Okay." she replied, not liking the answer but going with it anyway. Ludwig again summoned Kylie with his wand. "We have arrived. Where are-" The sound of breaking glass was heard below, cutting him off. Voices were heard down below. "Where are you?" he growled.

"In the bedroom." she finally replied.

"Elizabeth, take Samantha up to your mother's bedroom. Have Shirley help you with finding sutiable disguises within our wardrobe. Trent, you are charged with their protection-"

Another crash and the voices suddenly intensified. Ludwig guessed they were only one floor away from them now. He had to think fast. There was not enough time to try and teleport everyone out again, especially with Kylie bad at it herself. But that didn't mean she couldn't do it. "Go, all of you! I will hold them off for as long as possible. Tell your mother that if I do not return before she hears voices approaching, that she must use her teleportation abilites and travel to Lemmy's Castle."

Elizabeth and Trent helped carry Samantha towards their parents bedroom, but Shirley clutched her wand. "No, I want to help."

"Yeah, I'm no wuss." Xavier claimed. "I want to help get rid of these guys after you. They don't know who they're messing with."

Ludwig inhaled. Straight from Bowser, no doubt. "Your mother will not be pleased."

"I don't care!" Xavier reinterated. "They want to destroy the castle, so we should destroy them!"

"...very well. If you want to fight, then I'll show you how to fight." Ludwig said, changing his mind. "However, what may occur to you will stem from your decision to stay and you will be ultimately responsible for your own outcome."

"Yeah I know." Xavier muttered. "I said I don't care. They should pay for attacking us."

Ludwig turned to Shirley. "Please do as I say Shirley and join-" But Ludwig never finished as a group of thugs flooded out of a stairwell and seeing the three, rushed towards them. Using his wand, Ludwig unleased a powerful blue spectrum spell that blasted a straight line gust of wind toward them, knocking almost 20 of them off their feet and into the back wall behind them.

"Your wand relies on imaginary constructs." explained Ludwig. "For instance, to construct a shield, merely think it." A fireball was shot from the crowd and it hit a magical shield formed by Ludwig moments later. "Shirley, go now." Ludwig commanded as Xavier practiced shooting his own fireballs as more people came out of the stairwell. But Shirley hesitated, unable to move as her conscious was split and couldn't decide what to do. "They're up here!" cried some in the crowd and more footsteps were heard coming up an adjacent stairwell.

Meanwhile, Elizabeth and Trent had managed to carry Samantha to the fifth floor when they heard cries below them. Within the throng of voices, Elizabeth heard the screaming voice of Shirley and stopped in her tracks.

"I got to help her." she resolved to herself, noting the bedroom was not far off from them now. Trent nodded, and Elizabeth headed off in the other direction, deciding to make way to a balcony of windows in the floor's study a few rooms down. Reaching it, she saw the windows were broken and lay shattered all over the floor. Below her was a large number of people scuffling about and Elizabeth hid from sight immediately, thinking how she could help with her wand. Peering back around, she saw Shirley being rougly handled by the crowd as she screamed and kicked in a vain attempt to free herself of her captors. She was moved towards the front of the hall, then a magic blast came out of view knocking many of them down. With a few more cries a struggle ensured, until Elizabeth could see her father Ludwig grappled by both arms as he and Xavier next to him tried to break free.

"Take their wands!" came a voice, and Ludwig's own wand was wrested from him by several hands, who in their poorer state smiled with glee as their vengence came with rewards. But Elizabeth couldn't watch it anymore, and slowly creeping forward she pulled out her own wand and prepared to try to attack them, if attacking was anything like how she teleported that was.

"Well, look who it is!" came another voice, and a face worked through the crowd until it appeared right in front of Ludwig. "Don't remember me, do you? That guy you threw out of the army after Bowser died. Yeah, Jr. Koopa. Now you got it. Oh wait, you aren't king anymore, are you? Can't drive the little people under your claw anymore, can you? Serves you right for treating us like shit."

Ludwig struggled but there were too many hands on him, and one of them had his own wand pointed at himself which calmed him down. "Given your recklessness, it was inevitable." Ludwig managed to mutter.

"Huh? What was that?" Jr. Koopa leaned an ear towards Ludwig for a moment, then suddenly twirled and punched Ludwig in the side of the head, and to his unexpected surprise the Koopaling fell unconscious. "Hah! Looks like King asshole just gave up without a fight, boys!" There was a cheer as Xavier struggled in vain to free himself. "Take them to the camp! We'll bring them home first light tomorrow!"

At that moment, a bright yellow fireball soared overhead before it knocked stright into Jr. Koopa, sending him back into the crowd. Hands quickly pulled him to the back of the hall as others pointed to the fifth floor overlooking them. "It's one of his kids! Let's get her."

"Just kill her. Make the asshole suffer." suggested another and most seemed to be in agreement as various magical blasts and fireballs soared toward her. Elizabeth dodged as best as she could with the broken glass scattered nearby as she managed to pick off a few more. But Xavier and Shirley were moved towards the back of the hall and she could not hear what they were trying to yell at her. Eventually, they disappeared into the stairwell surrounded by rings of moving bodies. A moment later, and a large yellow and white fireball was launched from Jr. Koopa's direction and Elizabeth tried to deploy a magic shield, but suddenly she felt her legs being dragged down and she fell to the ground as the fireball soared over her head. It blasted into the ceiling, which sent a cascade of wood and metal straight on top of her and covering most of the view to the floor below. Steel girders were heard ricketing down the stairwell and one person cursed to himself. "Fuck! Now we can't get up there! Good going dumbass!"

"Dude, shut the fuck up. I just killed one of his girls." said another, a heavy breasted Koopa.

"Better to kill his sons, and wipe out the whole line." another suggested.

"But they're up there. King asshole was distracting us." Jr. Koopa said, finally recovering. "Clear that pile in the stairwell and let me know when you're broken through. The rest of us are going to the kitchen. It's time for a meal with the royal family!" He laughed and the majority followed him back down the stairwell where Ludwig and two of his kids were being held hostage as the group prepared a meal.

Elizabeth came to and found herself lying on her side surrounded by metal girders and debris on top of her. But something tugged at her leg, and she looked behind her and saw her little brother Trent with a glowing Magikoopa wand, seemingly trying to keep the pile from crushing them.

"Trent, why did you-" But Trent slapped a hand over her mouth and shook his head. Making a motion with his head, he slowly crawled out of the pile in reverse and only stopped when Elizabeth didn't follow him. She muttered to herself, trying to figure out why Trent had stopped her but eventually followed suit, carefully trying to not hit anything that might hinder the operation.

After a few minutes, she managed to crawl out and Trent helped her to her feet. The ceiling had collpased entirely throughout much of the southern part of the fifth level, covering the majority of the windows that had lay before them earlier. Trent gently eased the spell and the pile settled to the ground with some noise.

"Huh?" came a voice from below. "Eh, nothing." it said, immediately changing its mind. "How's the stairs look?"

"Another 5 or 10 minutes." came a shout, heard below and across the hall simultaniously. Elizabeth wobbled, her leg having been injured by broken glass but was still usable. Trent crept to the doorway and looked at the stairwell, still blockaded by several pieces of the ceiling. Looking back, Trent took Elizabeth's hand and guided her across the hall, hardly making a sound as they headed back towards their mother's bedroom. But Elizabeth noticed Trent beginning to breathe heavily and it became clear that he was pushing himself to try to save her. His health meter, a silver band attached to his left wrist suddenly started to beep and Trent slowed down. He had crossed his threshold limits and his blood pressure was skyrocketing.

"Trent, breathe!" Elizabeth whispered as she forced him to slow down. Trent stood in place forcibly taking in deep breaths, eyeing the meter on his wrist. He had pushed himself too far and leaned against the wall to support himself. His blood pressure slowly dropped as he remembered the limits he needed to stay within, even in a situation like this. Seeing his breathing stabilize, Elizabeth went on ahead to their parents bedroom now only a few steps away. The door opened automatically and she stepped inside, only to find it empty.

"Mom?" she called out, but no response came. Mom and Sam had left already. Maybe they heard the voices coming from the stairwell or the ceiling collapse? Trent walked up and leaned against the doorframe with a hand over his chest. "What do we do now?" Elizabeth asked, turning back to him.

Trent looked at the closet doors at the other end of the room, which then immediately opened up revealing a large wardrobe. Elizabeth merely watched as a seeming pair of invisible fingers looked through each piece until stumbling across a set of brown cloaks, some long and some short. With his hand, he took two short cloaks out from the closet and laid them across the bed. "Wow Trent, you're amazing at magic!" Elizabeth said. "How did you do that?"

Trent shrugged, then saw a colorful notebook on the vanity with another, made of black leather and gold pages sitting next to it. Taking both, he opened up the second and began writing inside of it as Elizabeth put her cloak on. Finished, he handed her the journal as he did the same in turn. "It's the first time I tried that." Elizabeth said aloud. "I've been interested in magic ever since we teleported." She went silent for a moment. "That's how we're getting out of here, same way we got in! Should've figured that out."

"We're almost through!" came a cry, and Trent immediately pocketed the journal and with his new cloak, quickly walked out of the room and took a left. Elizabeth merely followed, trying to guess as to what he had in mind. The stairwell was still blocked but much of the debris was gone and a pair of arms were seen trying to hack their way through the remainder. The two headed towards the northern end of the castle with Trent walking slower than he did the previous time, checking his meter to eye his progress. At the end of the hall was a doorway, and the Koopalings closed the door behind them upon entering. It was another balcony with windows overlooking the northern sections of the Mushroom World, largely devoid of people. It seemed most if not all of the intruders came from the southern end of the castle, the section that had crashed during the shift.

Trent took out his wand and pointed towards a range of hills not too far in the distance. Elizabeth nodded, and taking out her wand they began to go through the routine their father had taught them before.

"We're through!" came a cry, and not a moment later both Trent and Elizabeth disappeared in flashes of light. Outside of the castle about a mile into the distance, Elizabeth reappeared behind a small hillside, dazed for a moment by her surroundings. Coming to, she saw that Trent had teleported about 50 feet away from her on the same hillside. As he made his way towards her, Elizabeth couldn't help but peek over the hillside but immediately hid again after seeing faces walking within the room they were just in. "Stay low!" Elizabeth called out and Trent did so as he drew nearer. "They're in the room now!" After arriving, Trent plopped himself down as he controlled his breathing. They remained there for some time as Elizabeth was too nervous to try and look again. Eventually she remembered a question she wanted to ask before.

"Why did you pull me down when I was trying to save the others?" she asked him. Taking out his new journal, he quickly jotted down an answer and showed it to her. "Because that fireball would have killed you." it said.

"But I had a shield up." Elizabeth countered, prompting Trent to write out another response. "It was really powerful. You see what it did to the ceiling? Plus it was aimed at your head."

"Okay, I didn't know that last part." Elizabeth admitted. "But I could have countered that if I had more time. I was trying to save them you know..."

Trent shook his head as he wrote out yet another response. "There was too many of them. We needed more help. It's better to find them later after we find mom."

Elizabeth sighed. "I guess so. But..." She frowned and looked at the ground. "Leaving them like that, who knows what they will do to them..."

"Against all of them, we will be victims too if we tried." Trent wrote out.

"You're right." Elizabeth muttered, finally conceeding. She had a desire to help, but everything else was going against her. As much as she wanted to follow them, Trent was right and it was best to find mom first.

"So I guess mom went to Lemmy's Castle then." Elizabeth said aloud, getting up and looking back at the castle. The faces were gone, the room now empty. To her left was the long caravan of people traveling northeastwards, all headed to the same location. "We should go there then. I don't see her anywhere so that's probably where she went. Come on." Trent got up and passing across the hill they headed to the East, climbing over mounds of dirt and debris and the ruins of a few buildings. In reality, they were climbing over the fringes of the original Koopai settlement, made before they had been hatched. Little of it remained now save for broken brick, though Trent thought he saw a tent perching out of the bottom of a mound of dirt as he walked past.

After climbing another hill they could see the caravan was now much closer, only a few yards away. Sliding down a dirt mound, they approached the moving line of people and looked at them, hoping to find a free ride to the Castle. Most seemed to be walking, but many were also in wheeled vehicles powered by a variety of animals, and some were still powered by fuel left unspent until that moment. One truck passed by them with a large furnace on it's bed surrounded by piles of wood, presumably powered by wood gas, but the children could not make out its purpose and left it as an idle curiosity. Most did not seem to notice them, too immersed with their problems with physical injury or were too mentally incapacitated to respond. Many that passed seemed to be barely alive at all as they marched past with dried blood on their clothes and a lifeless stare in their eyes.

As the children walked alongside them, a long wagon powered by two gargantua troopas eventually pulled up next them and slowed. "Hey you two!" the driver called out, a middle aged Koopa Troopa with a cowboy hat. "You look lost! Where you headed off to?"

"Lemmy's Castle." Elizabeth replied.

"Well that's where we're all going." the driver said. "Bambesh Valley is a whole mess now, gangs everywhere, looting, you name it. We're all going to Lemmy's. If you guys want a lift we've got plenty of room in the back."

"Thank you so much sir!" she replied as she walked to the back of the wagon and climbed aboard. Helping up Trent, they found themselves surrounded by a variety of people and sat down on one of the benches that lined either wall with their heads down. Nobody said anything to each other as the horrors that they all went through were still fresh on their minds. A teenage Koopa at the far end yelped in pain as a makeshift nurse tried to stop bleeding from his leg, now dripping onto the floor. Compelled, Trent got up and moved to the back of the wagon, trying to maintain balance when the wagon ran over a series of potholes.

"Thanks, just hold it up like that." the nurse commanded as she grabbed a dirty roll of gauze nearby. "Do you have training?"

"I'm sorry, he can't talk." Elizabeth said to her from the other end. "I talk for him."

"That's okay. An extra set of hands is all I need for now." the nurse replied. Elizabeth slumped back and sighed.

"May I ask how you got all the way out here on your own?" asked an elderly women in front of her. "This place is violent, and dangerous."

"Well, I was with my mom, and we were supposed to go to Lemmy's together. But then this mob broke into our home and they started attacking my dad and my brother and sister. So I went to help them. My mom didn't do anything about it, I don't know why. But...I tried to stop them. I think they almost killed me, but he saved me at the last second." Elizabeth looked at Trent who was positioning the injured Koopa's leg. "We went back but mom was already gone, so it's just us."

"He's an angel." the old lady said. "Don't lose him. There's very few people like that in the world left. Though they say where we're going, the people there are much nicer, but I've been looking at this line and it's a real potpouri of folks so I think there's going to be a few rumples to smooth out. Lot's of bad men around these parts. It's because with things the way they are, the animal in them comes out and you get to see what a Koopa really is. I keep hearing stories of that former king, Ludwig who got attacked by a gang and dragged out of his own castle."

"Yeah I heard too." Elizabeth muttered, looking down.

"That's been traveling fast through these lines." the old lady continued. "He's got some bad karma and he's gonna pay up. I don't think you're old enough to know all the things he's done. It's a long story though." She yawned. "And I'm still tired." It wasn't the first time Elizabeth had heard her father being thought of as evil, and it certainly wasn't the last.

About an hour past until the carriage came to a halt. "We're here!" the driver yelled and immediately people got up and filed out of the wagon. After helping Trent off, Elizabeth took a look around and saw they had stopped upon a tall hill which overlooked what appeared to be Lemmy's Castle in the distance, covered by thick chunks of crumbling ice. And in between was a large vale that was dotted by thousands of tents with people coming and going in many directions. Many had buckets that they carried with them to the melting ice sheets to place large chunks of ice into for drinking later. Drinking water had become scarce, and the news of the melting ice sheets had brought troves of people to the site.

Trent pulled at her arm, snapping Elizabeth out her gaze. She followed her brother into the camp and wondered what he had in mind as the sun began to set over the horizon.

* * *

King Roy Koopa stopped in his tracks once he saw a small party of about 20 camped just outside the entrance to the Valley of the Koopas, a narrowly cut valley through the black rock of the volcanic range that surrounded the Old Kingdom. They were desperate, he knew that but now his load was even more burdened. He already knew what they were going to ask, and he already knew that a few more people were going to die that day. Unless they were battle hardened warriors or skilled tacticians, they had little chance of survival even with the King of the Koopa's present. Still, as the Earth King responsible for the Koopa's of the world, he needed to do his duty.

His son Vincent pulled his cloak back as the area had become warmer. His paws had begun to sweat inside of his gloves, but there was no way he could take them off now that a group of people had spotted them. A few raced up to them in awe, seemingly not believing what they were seeing. "But I thought you left!" said one, a yellow Koopa Troopa.

"Yeah, I came back." Roy responded. "And now I'm outta here. I'm not coming back to this place again."

"You going through the Valley, sir?" he asked. "Cause...we could use the protection. The old legend and all that."

"You could use a lot more than dat." Roy remarked. "Can you fight? What do you use? Your fists? Your shell? Magic? You gotta have something or they will wipe you out." The rest had come out of their tents by this point and had crawled up to them as they spoke. "I'm going in there and you can follow if you want. But you gotta take care of yourself. I ain't holding hands. The King of the Koopas can pass, that's me. But the rest of you are targets. This won't be like Lemmy's little charade. I don't have a magic shield like dat. If you can do magic, you might live."

"Dude, what choice do we have?" a Monty Mole blurted out. "We're gonna freeze our asses off if we don't try, so neither way looks good." Roy frowned.

"What about to the east? Isn't there a road through the crags that way?" Vincent asked, remembering what he saw on a map back in the library.

The Monty Mole shook his head. "The road to Sarasaland is wiped out. The sea is frozen, harbor was washed out too. The pipes are all destroyed. This is the only way out. It's either freeze here and die, or try to go through the valley."

"Why didn't you say that earlier?" Roy asked, turning to him.

"Cause it's out of our way if we're going to Lemmy's." Vincent responded. Roy merely rolled his eyes and turned back around. "And we'd run out of food anyway." Vincent added, noting their already diminishing supply.

"Hey, who is this?" asked the Troopa.

"This is my son, Vincent Koopa." Roy said. "He's the Crown Prince. Treat him nice." Vincent's face twisted at that. What?

"I didn't know you had children! My apologies your majesty!" the Troopa replied, playing his respect game for the monarch.

"Fine. We're going in there now, so get ready." Roy said impatiently, walking towards the entrance.

"Yes sir!" The two ran back off to their camp to pack away everything they could. Vincent followed his father to the entrance where a large stainless steel sign was seen bolted into the rock face to his right. "Only the King of the Koopa's may pass." it read in weathered letters. "WARNING: This path is fatal. Do not attempt with your life!" Below this was etched a Koopa skull, denoting its danger. Vincent sighed, wondering for the first time if this a good way after all, but shook it off. There were no other choices.

When their camp was packed away, they began their trek into the valley, which had become littered with large boulders and small landslides from the devastation brought about by the pole shift. Roy noticed the misplaced eagerness of his new companions as if it were a luxury to be escourted through the most dangerous path of the Old Kingdom. It was a privledge brought about by chance, yet it seemed the old hand holding mentality was still in place even after all that had occurred up until then. Denial was still in full swing.

"Man, this is going to be easy!" explained a naive Koopa with a baseball cap for the Bloopers. Roy said nothing, having already made his point earlier. They were already talking about him and ignoring the danger ahead of them. He snapped his left finger and Vincent walked up from behind. "What you got against them?" he asked his son.

"I found a few undead spells in the scrolls I took." Vincent replied. "They should, um, die again if I use it. But it's black magic, and I feel it all over this place."

"You feel it? What does that mean?" asked Roy.

"They all have a different feel to them." Vincent explained, talking about the colors of the magic spectrum. "This place is dark, there's a lot of fear. That's what black magic feels like. A lot of hopelessness."

"Some of them will be hopeless soon." Roy muttered, glancing at their companion's casual conversation. He guessed that was no coincidence now that he knew the valley was steeped in back magic. Many of the tombs were already surrounded by it but it sounded like the UmNaru were trying to pull their strings again. Speaking of tombs...

"What do ya know..." Roy stopped immediately with Vincent a step behind him. The others took a moment before they realized their leader had halted and they turned to him. "What is it?" asked the Koopa Troopa.

"We're here." Roy merely said, pointing to the ridges above them. Broken stone pathways were seen crawling against the rocks, all leading to doors in the Crags surrounded by rustic carved archways. Most of the doors were broken open or missing, their long history now lost to time. From his current vantage point, Roy could already see six of them with other paths flowing upwards into the distance. "Get yer shit out." he commanded.

"But there's nothing here!" The Koopa Troopa mocked. "Just a bunch of tombs."

"Probably just...oh wait." One of them caught notice of several dry bones clawing their way out of the ground above them. Some wore uniforms of unknown origin, while others wore rusting plate mail from the not so distant past.

"There's only a few though. It shouldn't be too bad." commented a Monty Mole.

"Start moving." Roy commanded. "Stay straight. Do not look at them." But he knew that one of them would look regardless and prepared himself for combat. With some courage they moved forward on their path, with many more broken pathways becoming visible to them as they traveled. Soon both sides of the valley were dotted with nothing but mausoleums of the dead in various states of decay. Many more undead crawled out of the ground from their presence and some were seen stumbling towards them. "Holy crap!" The Troopa exlaimed. "There's already like, 40 or 50 crawling out..."

Roy snorted, not surprised. "The kings had whole armies buried with them." he said, and watched their faces grow pale immediately. "We're in the 14th Dynasty now. 16th King." He thumbed to himself. But the others hardly paid attention to him as they couldn't help but look at the growing hoard coming against them. "Fuck! What do we do?" a Paratroopa asked. "I lost count at 70 something. Gotta be over hundred now."

His answer came in the form of arrows, shot by former bowmen of the early middle ages. Laced with blue spectrum magic, they all found their target and the Paratroopa fell to the ground dead.

"Run!" Roy shouted, and began sprinting forward. Vincent followed, preparing a spell with his wand as large multitudes of undead swarmed towards them from both sides. Many carried rustic swords, but others were more exotic as the history of the Koopa race seemlessly blended into one moment. Arrows flew past Roy's head into the Koopa Troopa's skull next to him, and he fell behind him dead. "Leave them! Keep running!" he called to the others. He knew that none of the undead would hurt him, but everyone else was a target. Vincent blocked a volley of arrows with a shield around him, and immediately after sent a wave of darkness into the mountainside to his left, and bones exploded in every direction. But right behind them charged a large group of dry bones in full plate mail head and all, with long broadswords at the ready. Vincent chanted a spell he learned with the UmNaru, and suddenly his wand transformed into a glowing sword of black metal, and he started hewing through them as he struggled to stay on the road. Roy himself had no choice but to start fighting to protect those around him, unleashing a powerful Earth spell that sent many undead around them to the ground.

"There's too many of them!" said the other Troopa, barely holding them off. He didn't see a group of undead on the ridge to the left, wearing exotic desert like outfits and scarves around their heads. Unsheathing glowing purple knives from their holsters, they threw them at the party below and Roy immediately shielded himself and Vincent from the onslaught. But the Troopa was outside his range and he was hit with several of them. He fell to the ground with tears in his eyes. "My legs! I can't feel my legs!" he cried.

It was paralysis magic, but Roy had no time to help as he tried to keep the hoard from pouncing on his remaining son who was now clearly struggling to survive. The poor Troopa was quickly overcome by swordsmen from his right flank and Roy continued to press forward. It had become every Koopa for himself and they needed to get out of there as soon as possible. Ahead of them, he saw the undead flooding into the road and knew that his son was in real trouble now. They needed to find another way through them. Looking about, Roy found the party of 20 were simply gone, the remainder left behind them in the sea of dry bones and it was just them now. On the ridge to his right, he noticed one tomb that was closed shut with no undead guarding the entrance or coming from the area. That was the first one that was seen to be visisbly locked on the outside. At this rate, they had few other choices. "This way!" he shouted, and left the road to follow a well laid stone path to the tomb. A number of soldiers in full plate mail ambushed them then, all sporting the insiginia of a long haired Koopa King in white on black. Roy remembered seeing it before in his history studies, but couldn't put his finger on it. They were aggressive, and some even narrowly attacked Roy in the process.

Vincent was growing tired as he tried to keep his game up against the endless armies of history. His reflexes and his knowledge in magic had so far kept him alive, but he hadn't been planning on going against an entire army. After circling his sword and cleaving all the undead around him, he shifted it back into his wand and slammed the ground with it, emitting a black darkness and sending a large number of loose bones into the air. With his vision free of enemies, he looked ahead of him at the path's destination. On the archway above the doors read the inscription:

Here lies

XIV BOWSER KOOPA

of the 14th Dynasty of Koopa

Vincent blinked. Was this the same guy his dad was telling him about before? "Why are we going here?" he asked.

"His bones aren't in here." Roy said, shoving undead out of his way. "They never buried his army here either. I would know. He died in the Mushroom Kingdom."

"The Mushroom Kingdom?"

"I'll tell you the story later. Let's get those doors open." Roy let loose another Earth spell on the ground and the undead were once again swept off their feet. Running to the doors, Roy found them sealed with a massive iron bar across them. Vincent guarded the doors as Roy used his brute strength to lift the bar off its hinges and slid it to the ground. With a foot slam, the doors opened into an empty interior.

"Go!" Roy shouted as Vincent slowly backed in while he threw shots of black magic at those chasing him. Roy swung the heavy bar at the remaining undead before Vincent closed the doors after him. Wasting no time, Roy slid the iron bar upon the hinges inside the interior which had happened to be there. Apparently, the tomb was built to withstand a siege. Then again, if what Ludwig had said of Bowser's last words were true, then Bowser had already known about the UmNaru and probably planned something against them.

Roy looked about him. They were in a small foyer with two exits on either side and a portrait of a middle aged Bowser on the wall in the middle. Flanked on either side of this were two identical vases that went well with the grey marble that covered the walls. Knowing his father well, Roy immediately checked the left vase and found a note inside. Unfolding the aged paper, he read its contents. "Sealed against eleven" was all it said. "Hmph." He then turned and checked the other vase and found another note, this one much older and crinkley. "Use dad's escape plan" it said, with an arrow pointing to the left below the words. This must have been really old.

"What are those?" Vincent asked as he healed his wounds, but Roy was too deep in thought to respond. Bowser's dad was King Morton Koopa Sr., the 13th...

"Thirteenth." Roy muttered, then it finally clicked. He was blocking the 11th King for whatever reason. He had heard stories of the tombs being connected to each other and this seemed to confirm that.

"Thirteenth what? Hey, tell me what you're thinking!" Vincent demanded, getting annoyed.

"Bowser had his tomb dug out to others ones around here." said Roy. "Don't know what he was thinking, but it'll be a problem. They'll find a way in here soon. Don't forget: we're dealing with King's on my level. There's two other ways out of here...at least. You healed up?"

"Yeah, I'm all set." said Vincent. "But that was a workout."

"We're not done yet." said Roy. "Can't go back that way. If these tombs are connected, we can use that. But its risky."

"Yeah it is. I really don't want to fight one of these kings." said Vincent.

"Here's what I'm thinking." Roy started. "This is connected to his dad's, Morton. And my gut says his dad won't fight us. Why? Because Morton found Richard's diary. Never read it but I know what it's about. He was the first guy to write about the UmNaru in our dynasty. Morton found it, and he started this...anti-UmNaru thing. And you're right, the valley has more black magic than it should. Something's up." A thud was heard and dirt fell from the ceiling. "Let's book it."

"I'd rather go back outside than fight a king against a wall." Vincent complained.

"Can't go back that way." Roy said, holding up the Earth wand. A vision was seen of the exterior behind the doors and an endless sea of dry bones were seen congregating around the doors. "Need to lose them."

Vincent sighed. He didn't like the idea, but going up against hordes of soldiers and losing was far worse. Plus, he saw in the distance a handful of tall figures with curled horns slowly heading in their direction.

"A few kings out there now." Roy commented before disengaging the spell. "Let's go. Follow me." He turned and went down the left passage with Vinent following. They entered a large chamber just beyond the wall; it seemed the right passage led to the same room. Inside, a number of stone seats were set up along the other side of the wall. Ahead of them was another wall with a narrow slit cut into its center, and below this a stone step was set up. Adjacent were two passages, one left and one right. Cracks were seen running across the walls: a factor from the pole shift, no doubt.

Vincent looked about him. He felt nervous about the place, even more so that he was bordering on exhaustion. There was no way he could have imagined the trip being like this, but in a way he was glad that he had come this way. It showed that the evil problem didn't stop with him: it was epidemic to the whole family line. Black magic was everywhere and white magic was nowhere to be found. The UmNaru were an enemy ages old and somehow they had possessed the forces of his ancestors, even the kings themselves. He wondered if there was a way to stop them.

Looking behind the seats, Vincent found a long drawer etched into the wall. Opening it, he found a couple of scrolls tucked away. Looking at one. It had something to do with trap doors. "He left scrolls here too." Vincent said, looking at his father behind him.

"Not surprised." said Roy, looking through the narrow slit in the wall. The other side showed a raised stone platform illuminated in a white light, but it was empty. It was as he thought.

"So maybe he..." Vincent stopped short as a ghostly image of a wicked king greeted him from the right passageway. Roy turned after his son didn't finish and stopped himself at the sight. It was an old King of the Earth, and with its long horns and long white hair, there was no mistake. This was the same guy. It made a toothy grin before it laughed hideously, a blue flame enveloping him. "Ludwig's sucessor." it said with a deep growling voice. "Once a fool, shame on him. Twice a fool, shame on me. I should have killed your father when I had the chance. He has ruined the line with his dogmatism, his rebellion against the great order blinding him from reality. But no matter. My vengeance is nearly complete. Soon his weak and idiotic offspring will be no more and the line will regain the glory it once held."

"Killing us gains you nothing." Roy retorted. "And Larry'll get you before you tried. He's got charge over you."

The king laughed. "Larry the fool has no charge over me, he has no charge over the whole valley. Only a fool would promote another to say such things. Tell me, what did your father say before he sent you to your doom, to serve under the wings of the sons of Naru as a mindless slave? A fitting role for idiots."

"Like you?" Roy commented as he tried to to remember his name. It was no doubt the 11th king, which meant he had broken the seal Bowser had indicated earlier. Roy counted the steps in his mind: the 11th was his great-great grandfather. "...Wolfgang. You're Wolfgang."

"The 11th Heir of Domitian, King Wolfgang Koopa." he proclaimed. "The greatest king of the 14th Dynasty. Your father has nothing against me, you even less so. The match has already been decided."

"What match? Who said I had to fight you?" Vincent asked.

"Ah yes, you." Wolfgang turned toward the youth. "The dead have been talking about you. A misfit such as you should never have been born, and yet you are allowed to live. If it wasn't for your lineage to Inauro, you would've been killed long ago."

"So you're not going to kill me, are you?" Vincent mocked. It was the same with Narec. For some reason, they wanted him alive.

Suddenly, Wolfgang turned and unleashed a large cone of frost breath at Roy, who was too slow to defend himself against it. After the frost subsided, a large icicle was seen in his place, unmoving.

"Not you." Wolfgang mused.

"You're not allowed to kill him!" Vincent blurted out in anger.

"I won't kill him...but the ice might." Wolfgang said. "And neither are you in a position to tell me what to do." He inhaled and breathed another ice blast at Vincent, but he was ready and let loose his best fire spell to counter it. Vincent's defense barely worked, the frost mere feet from his face, but eventually it subsided and he emerged unharmed. Immediately after, Wolfgang charged towards him with an oversized half axe. Swinging, Wolfgang's sliced through the air before it hit the ground, splitting the rock beneath it. "What?" Vincent had disappeared with his walking in shadows ability, and had darted aside before the blade could hit him. Wolfgang looked different in the shadows, and his original body was more pronouned and colored than before.

"Mages!" Wolfgang shouted. "Mages! Scry the tomb! He's invisible." A pair of dry magikoopa's entered the room and deliberated with themselves for a moment. When they finally started to cast a scrying spell, they only briefly saw the throwing knives aimed at their heads. The two fell to the ground one after the other moments later.

"Clever little magician you are!" Wolfgang said sarcastically, then he let out a cry as his femur got hit by a purple magic blast. He seemed to limp until the femur seemingly healed itself moments later. "A child's trick. Fitting for someone like you." Vincent looked at the icicle and saw Roy trying to break free from it using his left arm. With a ball of fire in Roy's fist, it exploded which diverted Wolfgang's attention. That's when Vincent saw a hole in the back of Wolfgang's skull. He had been killed from behind!

Roy wasted no time and punched Wolfgang square in the jaw before body slamming him into the far wall. Wolfgang's response was a fist to Roy's stomach which sent him flying to the other side of the room and shell first into the wall. Wolfgang inhaled, but before he could breathe a large black arrow made of magic suddenly flew through the air and pierced the back of his skull. He stumbled for a moment, before his frame crashed to the floor and he lay still.

Vincent sighed and reappeared in the world of the living. "Can we get out of here now?" he asked as Roy got up. "I say take the left side."

"Yeah, that way." Roy confirmed, and he stumbled after Vincent as the latter ran down the hall. Turning back, Roy saw that Wolfgang was stuggling to get up; it seemed his spirit had a vengeance, and it only made Roy run faster. They exited the main resting chamber of Bowser and ran through a winding hallway, seemingly bent at places from when the Earth groaned during its hour. Eventually the grey marbled walls ceased and were replaced with bare rock, indicating they were in the tomb of another ancestor. "Watch yourself." Roy called out from behind. "It's another tomb." Moments later, the shadows of beings were seen against the glow of the torches on the walls. Another corner, and Vincent almost ran into a group of undead soldiers who wasted no time attacking him. These were armed with lighter garments but were in better condition than the others, and they all sported the emblem of a bald Koopa colored in brown on black.

But Roy was not worried about what was in front him. Behind him, he saw they were being flanked by Wolfgang's soldiers as they closed on their position. "Push right through them!" he told Vincent. "Don't even fight them. We're being flanked!"

Vincent unleashed his black magic discarnate spell and the way ahead turned into a flying pile of bones and armor. Jumping over the mess, Roy saw the soldiers bogged down by the litter now in the hall and they started to fall behind. But before rounding a corner, Roy caught eye of King Wolfgang in the distance, beginning to knock some of his undead soldiers over the pile.

After rounding another corner, they reached the main chamber of the tomb which seemed to be constructed similarly to the last. A large group of soldiers defended the main gateway into its resting place, a large set of stone doors that probably housed a king's corpse on the other side. They seemed rather placid and made no motion to attack, and Vincent was of a mind to head back into the open and find the main road again. "Let's just leave now." Vincent suggested, heading for what appeared to be the entrance. But magic iceballs flew from the hall they came down, and Roy was locked in a battle to defend their rear flank. "He's still following us." Roy said. "I got to put my foot on this."

Vincent was about to say something until Wolfgang rounded the corner and immediately unleashed his frost breath towards Roy, not caring for his own soldiers in the way. Roy darted out of the passage and the frost breath froze the undead guarding the tomb just feet from them.

"Come now idiot son of Bowser, meet your fate!" Wolfgang taunted as he approached closer to the tomb. But at that moment there was a slam in the rock, and the stone doors were seen moving slowly outward. Upon opening, a large Koopa emerged with a large bald head and noticably lacked the traditional pair of horns, and he sported a large brown shell to boot. Wolfgang stopped in his tracks upon seeing the new king emerge. "Just as expected, the rebels run to more rebels. If you had only changed your mind when given the chance Morton, I would have saved you from death."

"You cannot fight the ways of time, Wolfgang." Morton replied, brandishing his own wand. "It never yielded its secrets to you while you still lived, but perhaps it has decided to grant you your wish of immortality through death, as tormenting as your existence may be now. Forever serving the whims of your masters, the dark sons of Naru, your mind was given to them ever since your intiation as the Earth King. What words you have for me are not yours."

Wolfgang snorted. "Tall words for a weak Koopa. If Cameron were here now, you would not be speaking such debachery and you would be back in the dungeons of hell where you belong."

"But he is not, for he is not allowed inside of these grounds." Morton countered. "And as of now, neither are you." Wolfgang pulled out his own wand, a solid piece of silver twisted in design into a white diamond and attemped to cast a spell towards Morton, but found his body dematerializing from his feet upwards and could not finish the incantation. He gave a cry of rage before his head disappeared entirely, along with all the solders that disappeared along with him. "All is well then." Morton said under his breath.

"Holy crap." Vincent muttered. Morton turned towards his descendants. "It is unfortunate how corrupt the line has become to the whims of those descended from Marthos." he explained. "Though doubtless their karma will be paid in full with time. I am Morton Koopa, the 13th Heir. You have fled from the empty tomb of my son, though I do not recognize your faces. But if you are allies of the Krimmin just as the young Bowser once was, then you are allies with myself, the instigator."

"Name's Roy, his third son." Roy began. "16th King. This is my son Vincent." He paused. "I'm trying to end this thing. It's been killing all of us, and I figured, there's only one way to do it. So I married the last one descended from Inauro."

"A forbidden marriage." Morton commented. "And so are any offspring that may arise from it. What is the purpose of this?"

Roy inhaled, not comfortable with Vincent hearing what he was saying. "The UmNaru were not evil once. Came to be that way, don't know how. But if they're to be defeated, then you gotta bring them into the open. Keep them from hiding. You take them down from within, not without. They know everything about war, controlling their puppets, the ways of the mind. You have to take them from within. They made the rules, about keeping the lines seperate. We didn't. We need to make our own rules."

"We need to make our own rules." Morton echoed with a growing smirk. "Heh, those were the exact words your father said to me before he began the Krimmin revolt against the aged King Wolfgang, back in the late medieval age. Assassinating him, it sparked the beginning of the awakening of those who came to realize who controlled the line and the Kingdom from the shadows. I would never have thought to merge the branches together into a single lineage, though that is how it once began, did it not?"

Vincent clutched his hand suddenly as pain rippled through it. "What is the matter?" Morton asked. Vincent took off his glove and found the symbol of the UmNaru pulsing red upon his palm. "The Mark of the UmNaru." Morton muttered. "Then..." He turned and seemingly thought to himself for a moment. "...no. You will know when you are ready. You are still young yet, and already have much on your shoulders. The truth will come when you are ready." Roy looked perplexed. What truth was that, aside from what the boy already knew? "Here. In the drawers opposite you will find a pair of scrolls of white magic. Take them to help stem the pain of darkness."

"Thank you!" Vincent exclaimed, finally getting what he had wanted for a long time. He opened the drawer to find two glowing white scrolls within, sealed with golden rings. "Thank god. I've needed real healing magic for so long now. But what did you mean about the truth...?"

"You will know in due time." said Morton. "For you do not have the power yet to harness it. Have you yet forged a wand through the magic induction ceremony?"

"No, I don't think so." said Vincent. "Do you mean making my own wand? Dad said we're supposed to do that later."

"There is a forge upon the northeast ridge of the Valley." Morton said. "It is one of the most ancient forges of the race, only still existing due to where it now sits. It has laid rather undisturbed through the ages and I believe you may find gems within if you care to take a look."

"We'll think about it." said Roy. "We've got undead chasing us, so we gotta bolt out of here as soon as we can. But thanks. I still gotta teach that to him."

"When the time is right." said Morton. "And with that, I will let you two depart. You have destinies to fulfill far beyond this valley I sense, and it is wise to now leave this place. Run as swift as you can and try not to engage in any of your ancestors. I wish you well and hope the final defeat of the UmNaru and the cleansing of our family line will soon be at hand. Farewell!"

"Thanks. No really." said Roy. "Appreciate it." With that, Morton entered his tomb before shutting the stone doors behind him. His undead guard reanimated soon after, but as with before, none of them attacked the duo.

"That was my granddad." Roy said. "Your great-granddad. Never met him till now. He's a nice guy, lucky it ended up like this."

"My family reunion will be full of dead people." Vincent mused with a bitter tone. "All my relatives are dead, my siblings are dead, mom is dead. The dead talk to me. Where are the people that are actually alive? Where are they?" He looked at the undead ahead of him, who merely looked at each other. He was getting sick of living in the dark and dealing with the dead. Maybe it was an adverse effect of the white magic scrolls that he now had, but Inauro's ring also seemed glow brighter than usual. He slid the golden ring off one scroll and opened it up. Inside he found a number of white magic spells written in golden letters on white paper, one of which had the effect of dispelling all evil. He tried it on his hand, and the mark gradually became less painful until only a slight tingling was felt.

Closing the scroll and putting the ring back over it, he put his glove back on before stuffing the scrolls away with the rest of his collection of spells. "I'm getting out of this valley right now." he said with a new determination and headed towards the entrance.

"Hey!" Roy called and ran after him. But Vincent had already dashed outside and found that most of the undead were still huddled around the entrance to Bowser's empty tomb. Ahead to the north were fewer congregations and Vincent wasted no time dashing down the hill towards the road. By the time Roy made it outside, the undead had noticed their presence and began moving towards their location. Ignoring them, Roy tried to dash after the youth who was running much faster than he was. It seemed that each step he took in the valley, the more incompetent he became. "Hey! Do not run ahead of me!" Roy shouted back.

Vincent responded by slowing down after he jumped down to a hill that overlooked the road. But before he could make the last leap, something else leapt directly in front of him with a thud. He looked up and saw a great Koopa king had landed in front of him, over 13 feet tall wielding a double edged sword and a long sharp shield. "Etku karak almeni!" he shouted before roaring at Vincent. This guy looked menacing and he decided not to stick around. Vincent bolted and jumped back up the hill that he had just jumped from earlier. He looked back to see if he persued, and suddenly he felt his neck get caught by the shield that the king threw at him moments earlier. Caught by the metal, he was slammed into the mountainface behind him with his neck wedged between it and the shield. The shield had cut both sides of his neck and blood began to run down his body. Too focused on trying to get the thing out of the rock, he almost didn't notice the king charging toward him with his glowing brown sword held up high, intending to behead him. With a little fire magic, he heated the metal quickly and managed to slide out the shield far enough for him to drop to the ground. Moments later, the king's blade swiped at the rock which sliced straight rhough it and sent a rain of boulders towards the youth. Vincent tumbled back down the hill he came and landed with a thud, coughing up blood as he tried to get up.

Roy darted over a few hills, finally able to see what was going on. This king was serious business. Given his height, he was probably from one of the older dyansties. The king had noticed Roy and let out a large roar in his direction. This gave enough time for Vincent to get up and shove his wand at the king's chest and unleash his black magic spell, which sent the king flying across the road towards the other ridge with his arms flying off him in the process.

"Vincent!" Roy yelled. "Do not run ahead of me!" But the boy was too busy trying to heal himself. His neck wounds sealed up quickly with the new white magic. "Come on! Get up!" Roy said angrily. Sighing, Vincent got up and wiped the blood from his mouth before heading back down to the road, this time reaching it. The hoard was not far behind now, beginning to round the last bend to them. Getting the cue, Vincent ran a little slower as Roy stayed behind him to guard the kid from any more attacks. The northern passes were not as populated as the south, but the hills held far older tombs and the power of the kings were far greater. Arrows came from their rear and Roy extended a shield that reflected their shots, hitting many of the dead that now chased them from behind.

They did not know for how long they ran, but to Vincent it seemed like forever. A sight caught his eye to his left. Wiping sweat from his brow, it seemed like he could see stone spires extending out of a mountain peak. A large opening could be seen into it and he guessed that it was the forge that Morton had talked about. The sky above it pierced through the volcanic gloom with a brilliant white, the first time he had seen it since leaving John's Castle. "I think...that's the forge." he managed to say between breaths.

"No time!" Roy said, knocking more dead down with a basic wind spell. "Keep running!"

"It's been...an hour...since we...started." Vincent blurted out. He looked behind him and the dead were still on their trail, refusing to give up the chase. The sky above them began to lighten from the ashen black to a more lightish grey. Snow and ice were seen ahead on either side of the valley and they saw the ridges begin to widen on either side. Running through melting ice, they slowed down once they saw that the exit was in sight. A sign was seen to their right, a wooden post with a board attached on its end. Roy saw that the dead had finally started to fall behind them, with most turning away and heading back where they had come. After sending a few blasts to the remaining stragglers, the rest of the dead were gone from sight leaving the two alone.

Vincent ran past the sign, not caring for the message or the skull attached to it. He slowed down until he collapsed face first into the melting snow, breathing heavily and too exhausted to move further. Roy slowed to a walk and caught himself breathing heavily as well. That was far more difficult than he thought, and he didn't do nearly as well as he had hoped. Were the UmNaru watching their footsteps? It seemed likely since the whole valley was soaked in black magic more than it usually was. But he was too tired to think further, and Roy found himself sitting down on the snow with a sigh. Despite what happened, Vincent did an amazing job, far more than he had hoped.

"I...puh...I am...never...gah." Vincent muttered, too out of breath to speak correctly. "Never...doing that...again." He pulled his face out of the snow and saw that his mouth was bleeding all over it. "Never again..." He sat on his side and fumbled inside of his robe for his pouch of scrolls.

Roy huffed. "It was your choice, not mine...but I'll tell you what. You did good. Real good, didn't think you'd fight a king like dat."

"Good?" Vincent seemed to laugh before he coughed on his own blood. "Yeah. It's my fault. But...no other way. It was either this or..." His fell silent before he started an incantation for full healing. At length, Roy got back on his feet again and looked to his east, directly ahead of him. There he saw what appeared to be Lemmy's Castle in the distance, covered by slabs of ice with some of its stone pillars sticking out from the mess. It seemed that his brother's castle had made it through the shift after all. That's what he hoped for. Now as long as Lemmy was still alive...

An idea hit him then. Why didn't use use it before? Roy shook his head. He had other things in his mind at the time. Taking out the Earth Wand, he cast a spell to the wand's other half. "Kylie. It's me." He said.

A minute passed and nothing happened. Then a familiar face popped up above the wand. "Wow. Am I seeing this right?" Kylie asked. She looked a little out of her mind, so Roy thought.

"Yeah. I'm alive." said Roy. "Been hectic as fuck. Ran through the Valley of the Koopas. We're alive. Well, son and I are."

"The Valley? You ran through that?" Are you crazy?!" Kylie exclaimed. "What about the rest of your family?"

Roy sighed and shook his head. "That's a story. Only one son made it, Vincent."

"Oh my god, I'm sorry..." Kylie started.

"Listen." Roy said, cutting her off. "We're fucking exhausted. We need rest. Is Lemmy alive? We're goin there next."

"Uh...yeah, I'm at his castle right now." said Kylie. "There's a lot of people migrating here from Bambesh Valley. That whole place is a mess, Roy. You have to do something about it. I...will tell you the whole story when you get here."

"Alright." Roy said. "Going now. See you then." Kylie nodded, and her image faded to nothingness.

Roy looked at his son, who seemed to be in somewhat better shape. "Sorry, but we gotta keep going." said Roy, walking up to him. "Lemmy's Castle's out that way." He pointed towards it. It looked to be about 3-4 hours away from Roy's guess. "He's an uncle of yours. We'll rest there for a while."

Vincent said nothing at first as he put away one of the scrolls he used to heal himself. He then crawled back to his feet, which remained sore from all the running. "How do you people live like that?" he asked suddenly. "That's...that's not living. That's hoping to live. They're really dying, endlessly. We need to be living. I want to be alive, and not put myself in a cage." He sighed as the cool air brushed across his sweat laden face. He stepped forward towards the castle with a sense of refreshment filling him. Roy watched him go for a moment before following silently behind him. He sensed that his son's fate was moving beyond him to something greater than he had imagined. Vincent had defeated two Earth Kings and he was still a youth, which was something unheard of. What that meant Roy didn't know. But whatever it was, it had something to do with what his granddad said, his "truth." For now, Roy decided to simply enjoy the sky above him, as grey as it was. It was better than the suffocating clouds of ash that he had been under since he had awakened in the snowy ruins of the Old Kingdom.


	4. 49: Echoes of the Past

They came to the edge of the trees, and ahead of them lay a long sandy coastline dotted with debris and flotsam washed in by the tsunami that ravaged the globe during the pole shift. The water had risen since then and had begun to encroach on what remained of the coast.

"The water's rising already!" Pete said in a hushed whisper.

"Why would it?" Tommy asked, oblivious to what was occurring.

"That's what we were told." said the other. "The ocean would rise after the shift is done, and all these lands would flood. That's why we gotta get the bananas and scurry out of here." He pointed to a peninsula of land just ahead of them, upon which stood a hut of sticks and grass with a boat moored on the sand nearby. "That's it. We're gonna sneak up and knife them. You got your piece?"

"Yeah." Pete unsheathed a carbon blade from his side.

"Okay, let's get in from behind!" the other said and hastily moved forward with the other two following behind. Moments later, a Kong with a pair of shades was seen leaving the hut, heading towards his boat when he happened to spot the trio out of the corner of his eye.

"Wooooohoooo!" he exclaimed in the typical Kong fashion. "Them Kremlings are still on my tail! Tiny! Get the coconut launcher! It's time for a little game of hit the Kremling!"

"Drat, he saw us! Attack!" Pete sprang forward onto the beach along with the other, but Tommy didn't feel like this was a good idea. A part of him felt it better to dash back into the jungle, but with no knowledge on how to survive, and with little food that too was not such a good idea. Plus, being young he didn't want to get on anyone's bad side. With this in mind, he darted after them with a plan.

A little Kong with blonde pigtails came running out of the hut with a large wooden cannon on her shoulder. "I got this one Funky! I need to make up for the time you saved me." Tiny said, aiming the cannon at the Kremlings.

"Wha? You sure?" Funky asked, but Tiny already started firing coconuts at the trio running toward them. One coconut hit Pete directly, and the resulting explosion threw Tommy to the ground. But he did not get up and decided to play dead instead.

The other Kremling rushed forward as he dodged Tiny's exploding coconuts. "Your banana's are mine!" he shouted, preparing to jump at them. But a coconut instead exploded at his feet and he was shot straight into the air behind the Kong's and landed in the ocean far in the distance.

"Fowl ball!" Funky shouted. "Outfield's the other way dude!"

"Fowl critters maybe." Tiny commented, looking at the craters around her. She spotted something that didn't look anything like a Kremling. "Hey! That's not a critter! What is it?"

Funky immediately dashed across the beach to examine the mysterious creature. Tiny followed behind, trying to lug the heavy cannon with her. When they arrived, they found a blast crater with a Kremling on the right and a white shelled creature on the left. It lay on its side with its eyes closed.

"That's a Koopa!" Funky exclaimed. "What's it doing down this far? Hey, is it alive?" Funky kicked the stomach and Tommy coughed in response.

"Hey you! Why did you attack us?" Funky asked.

"I need to go home." Tommy groaned. "They said you were giving them trouble."

"Hah! Spin it the other way and you got the real story!" Funky said. "The Kremlings have done everything to take my banana's and I've done squat to them!"

"They said you have a boat." Tommy continued as he crawled to his feet. But he saw Tiny ready the coconut gun in response.

"You aren't getting our boat by attacking us!" Funky declared.

Tommy sighed. Clearly this was not going to work. "Then is there a castle around here? Maybe I can-"

"Castles? Nawww." Funky waved his hand with amusement. "Besides that maniac K. Rool's Kontraptions, there's no...wait, there is that place." Funky scratched his chin. "It's not really a castle, but the Koopa's made it. Perfect! It's right up your alley."

"Is there food there?" Tommy asked.

"Hell, now it's probably all rotten." Funky responded. "It's been sitting there for a while."

"Well that won't help." said Tommy. "I need to find a way back home to the Koopa Kingdom, but I don't know where that is or if they're coming to find me or whatever."

"Who could come looking for you now?" Tiny asked.

"My parents, Ludwig and Kylie."

"Oh shiiiiii-" Funky thought twice, especially now that K. Rool was on his tail. He didn't want two villains chasing him down. However, he did get along with Ludwig's younger brother Larry. "They had kids! Wooooo! I'm getting old! Man I didn't know that! That's my bad. Listen, that castle I just talked about. Your dad built it. It's all yours to take. I don't think anyone else lives in it. But when you get there, go to the control room cause there's a radio up there you could use to dial home with. Don't know if there's power to the place though."

"But where is it?" Tommy asked.

"Oh, it's just beyond that range." Funky said, waving his hand at the mountain range Tommy had seen earlier. "It's down in a valley, a few miles from here." Funky reached into a sack on his back. "A treat on me!" It was a bunch of bananas.

"Thanks..." Tommy took them and wondered if this was all a ploy to get rid of him. "But...let's say I can't find anything. Will you guys still be here if I come back in...like, a few days?"

"That's how long we're staying here for." Tiny replied. "We're getting ready to sail down the ocean and we'll be done with the boat by then, maybe three days. There's a village south being built by the survivors and that's where we're going-"

"Hey don't tell him about our plans!" Funky retorted.

"I wont attack you again, promise." Tommy said. "I never heard about you guys before so I didn't know. You look like monkeys."

"We're the Kongs!" Funky proudly proclaimed. "With a capital K! This is our jungle and we're always fighting the guy trying to steal our banana horde, King K. Rool. Bowser had a deal with him so I'm a little fishy with your relatives, but your uncle Larry was a cool guy so I'll cut you some slack for not knowing."

"My dad never tells me anything." Tommy muttered. "He just says what I need to know."

"Bingo! That's him in a nutshell." Funky said.

"I didn't even know I had an uncle Larry." Tommy continued.

"Larry was the number two in that place." said Funky. "He was close with your dad, so I'm being easy on you. That doesn't mean the rest of your family is alright by me, I'm just calling the shots as I see them. So it was nice meeting you and all that, even though that could have been...I don't know, friendlier? But we gotta get back to making our boat before sundown, and you should head out now if you want to reach that place by sundown too. I'm Funky by the way, the most rad of the bunch! This is Tiny."

"I'm Tommy." said the Koopaling. "You two are interesting, that's for sure."

"Haha! We get that a lot! Alright then, good luck and I hope you make it back in one piece!" Funky waved before turning back and Tiny gave him a small wave with a smile.

"Bye." Tommy waved as Tiny turned and followed her uncle back to the hut. In truth, he did not want them to leave, but after his attack he knew that the Kong's could not fully trust him. There was a lot about the world that his father, the former King Ludwig never told him about in the daily lessons he was given along with his other siblings. Neither did his father ever talk about his life before he became a King, Tommy realized. He always explained his passion for music, but little else was said about his own life as a Koopaling under their grandfather Bowser. Being a Koopaling curious about everything, Tommy was not satisfied and now that he was broken free, he decided to get as many answers about the world and his heritage as he could before finding a way back hone. With his mind made up, Tommy headed back into the jungle, the sun already crossing the zenith of the day above a cover of cloud.

* * *

The climb up the ridge was longer and harder than he thought, putting his physical skills to the test. The mountain range had volcanoes dotted along it and numerous landslides had occurred during the shift, making some routes treacherous to attempt. At one point, Tommy attempted scaling a patch of dirt before he was forced to dart aside as he had triggered another landslide that brought tons of rock and debris to the jungle floor.

"Crap..." Tommy muttered. He hoped there was no one else down there at the time. Deciding to stick to the rock, he climbed with his hands and knees to the top of a pale ridge, juxtaposed by two erupting volcanoes safe in the distance. After reaching the top, Tommy exhaled loudly, glad that the hard part was finally over. But what he saw on the other side startled him. Before him was a shallow valley nudged between the reforming Kong mountains and the Northern Mushroom Range, its snowy tops now replaced by volcanoes of their own. Resting upon the jungle floor was a large metallic structure that was seen leaning against the face of the Mushroom Range in a dilapidated state. It had the shape of a symmetrical column and the darkened words of "DK" clearly seen upon its upper half, though the K had come loose and was close to falling off entirely. The jungle had begun to grow around it, with many plants and vines twirling around the aging metal, though a few recent landslides had also partially buried the place.

Tommy made a face. This looked nothing like the castle that Funky Kong had talked about. In fact, judging by the DK on it's face, it probably belonged to the Kongs! But then again, with what he's seen, how could they build something like this? Ever since landing in the area, Tommy had not seen a single bit of technology or civilization anywhere. With the world as developed as it once was, he figured that he would at least find a town or something with modern civilization within it. But instead he was met with primitive technology, which told him that this probably wasn't built by them. If that was true...

"Why would my dad build this for them?" was the question prominent in Tommy's mind as he decided what to do. Food was not a big problem for the short term but water certainly was. He didn't trust the water in the streams as ash fall from the volcanoes had mixed in with them. He had no way of purifying any water that he could see, which motivated him to check out the ruins below in hopes of finding something. After his climb to the top, he realized that he was growing thirsty and needed to find something to drink.

He descended downhill which was a more pleasant experience, though landslides still abounded around him and he remained vigilant. He reached what he guessed was the bottom, which was now covered in dirt and rock with a few trees sticking above it. Ahead of him was a large clearing, with had many Kremling corpses spewed about alongside small craters. On the other end of the clearing was the entrance to the massive structure, with its doors wide open. A stench came up and Tommy immediately covered his face. Was this really a good idea? Then again, where else could he go? Even if the place was a grave, if there was a radio within, then it was better than dying with nothing.

After a few moments, Tommy cautiously stepped out into the clearing, but immediately after a pair of lights were seen flashing near the entrance and a pair of strange weapons beneath them pointed at the hapless Koopaling. "Emergency Breach Protocol." came a robotic voice. "Please show your PDA for scanning."

"My what?" Tommy blinked.

"Subject's PDA unavailable. Please state your name." said the voice.

"Tommy Koopa." he said. "Son of Ludwig Von Koopa."

"Processing...Tommy Koopa not registered. Ludwig Von Koopa registered as builder and sole proprietor of the Galaxy. Evidence required. Please await further scanning, or be neutralized."

After a moment, a beam array quickly scanned through Tommy's body. "Scan complete. DNA analysis indicates similar codon pairs to the host. Statement plausible. Is subject a member of the Galaxy?"

"Um...I want to be." Tommy said after a moment.

"Awareness of this complex is sufficient. Access granted. Please head to the initiation chamber. Welcome to the Galaxy, Tommy." The guns deactivated and the lights went off. With a face, Tommy slowly walked up to the doors, thinking they might try to pull a fast one on him again. But nothing happened and he passed through the open doorway without a hitch. Walking inside, he drew a breath at the expanse of the place, despite the considerable amount of damage it had sustained since its construction. Most of the glass hand railings had shattered long ago and the rails were bent in some places, but that didn't stop Tommy from looking up and down at all the floors around him. Many of the walls were caved in or had imploded, and debris lay along every path he could see. Some of the foliage of the jungle had made its way inside and vines crawled about on the walls. However, the place still looked navigable despite all that and Tommy didn't know where to start. What seemed more remarkable was that the place still had emergency power and Tommy didn't know how that was possible or how it all worked for that matter.

On one side he could see a room full of clothing with many shirts on racks and piled all over the floor as well. Another room had a few electronic gadgets inside, but there were signs of looting within as much of it was empty. It seemed people had ran out with what they could when the place crashed. At the opening of another store Tommy caught the eye of a skeleton dressed in a business suit looking at him. Tommy gulped. This place was indeed a mass grave and it felt like he had entered a technological tomb instead. But he had to find the radio, and once he did he was going to leave as soon as possible.

Tommy began wondering through the rubble, trying to imagine what kind of place it really was. Was it a giant floating mall? But then why would his dad make a floating mall for the Kongs? There were too many questions that the place raised and Tommy silenced them for the time being. For now, he needed to find the "control room" Funky had told him about. If this place was anything like his dad's castle, then the control room was at the very top.

Watching his step, Tommy looked around him for any kind of stairwell. A courtyard was seen ahead filled with debris, with piles of dirt flowing through what were once large windows. What appeared to be an elevator was seen smashed and distorted into various angles. As he walked towards it, emergency lights blinked to life, though many flickered with difficulty. The place definitely had some power left and he almost wished the elevator worked. However, he spotted a stairwell nearby and looking inside, he saw it winding above and below for many floors. Sprinting forward, he began his long ascent upwards.

Tommy climbed many floors with the level numbers blurring by him. He didn't know how long he ran, but eventually the stair twisted until it became unusable altogether after one of the exits. Looking at the nearest exit, he saw a sign that read DK65-7XX. Barging through it, Tommy found a long hallway, this time filled with doors on ether side all the way down. Breathing heavily from running so fast, Tommy continued his marathon race down the hall until he nearly passed another stairwell to his right.

Running up, he soon felt out of breath and forced himself to slow down. Tommy didn't know why, but he didn't like to waste any time and relied on his speed to keep as much time as possible for himself. But the stairs were conquering him and Tommy slowed to a walk as he struggled to push himself forward. Something told him that the elevators were meant to be used instead of the stairs, but if he were to reach the control room, then he had no other choice.

Time seemed to stretch on for hours, until he saw what looked like the top of the stairwell. With a new burst of energy he ran up the last four flights of steps before finally reaching the top. The door was unlike the others and had no handles, and was engraved with the letters DK-X. Walking closer, the doors opened automatically revealing a dark, narrower hallway. Passing by an elevator shaft, Tommy walked towards the end of the hall as the doors slid shut behind him. Another door like it was seen, this time with a black monitor display next to it. Walking up to it, Tommy wondered why it didn't open automatically like the previous one did. Below the monitor, he noticed a keyboard and a strange device next to it. Fiddling with the keys, the screen blinked to life asking for a "username." He typed in his own name and pressed enter.

"Invalid entry. Please provide fingerprint for analysis and verification." said the same AI as before. Shrugging, Tommy placed his claw on the scanner which flashed blue momentarily.

"Analysis complete. Tommy Koopa identified. Inadequate security clearance. Level 2 authorization or above required."

Tommy frowned. That didn't sound good. "Well how can I get in then?" he blurted aloud.

"Level 2 authorization or higher required." repeated the AI.

Tommy assumed that meant people like his dad. "Well my dad's knocked out." he explained, last remembering his physical state. "He can't tell you to open and I don't know who else that could." No response came from the computer, so he decided to switch gears. "What's the control room for? Is that where you pilot this...thing?"

"The control room is the administrative center for the Kong Sector of the Galaxy." the AI stated. "All life support systems, electrical systems and communications systems for the Kong Sector are housed within the control room. The sector may be piloted if detached from the Galaxy central hull if needed."

"That's not the first time I heard Galaxy." Tommy said to himself. "Life support systems?"

"Yes. Systems that deliver oxygen to all parts of the sector."

"So this place was flying." Tommy said.

"Of course." the AI stated. "The Galaxy is the world's largest space station. Life support is required to sustain its population."

"That's cool." Tommy didn't expect his dad to build something like that. It sounded like a long story. "But we're not in space anymore."

"...please re-clarify." the AI asked.

"We're in a jungle...somewhere, I don't know what's it's called, but the Kong's live in it and they told me to come here."

"Sensor and visual arrays offline. Inadequate power." the AI stated. "Unable to verify location. Sector is in emergency mode due to unknown power failure."

"But all you have to do is turn on a camera or something." said Tommy. "You saw me at the entrance. How can you not see where we are?"

"Your lifeform was verified by heat signature." the AI explained. "Low power detector. Visual verification missing due to camera's now offline."

"Then why don't you turn them on?" Tommy suggested.

"Insufficient power remaining." the AI said. "Solar arrays 2, 3 and 5 damaged. Voltage draw decreased by 78%. Only vital emergency systems are currently operational."

"What about turning off those guns at the entrance?" Tommy suggested.

"Security detail required for emergency mode." came the response.

"Just turn one of the guns off then." Tommy pleaded. "For like, 10 seconds then turn on the camera for that long. That can't hurt right?" The AI did not reply and Tommy threw his arms up in frustration. He sat on the ground, now unsure what to do.

"Analysis complete." the AI said suddenly. "Temporary override supported by your level of authorization. Will deactivate right sentry for 10 seconds and activate external visual camera to verify current environmental conditions." A series of power fluctuations were heard throughout the walls, which occurred again a few seconds later. "Environment verified. Galaxy no longer in orbit. Analyzing...crash landed upon the surface within the Kong Jungles. Survival mode activating. Reducing life support system output. Checking for Galaxy members currently aboard..." There was a pause. "One confirmed via heat detection. Substantial damage to residential quarters reported by remaining operational arrays. Chances of sustainability 38%. Assuming the Galaxy mandate to be relinquished. Opening all security enhanced doors through Level 1 Authorization."

"Yes! Thank you!" Tommy said, jumping to his feet. Moments later, there was a discharging and the doors slid back, but only half way before abruptly stopping with a barrage of sparks. Tommy quickly squeezed through the doorway and entered the dimly lit room as the doors haphazardly closed behind him. It was smaller than he expected. Circular in shape, it housed consoles that lined its circumference in varying states of preservation, though most seemed to be intact. Empty chairs were tossed all about along with loose papers that littered the floor. A few small lights were seen on a number of consoles, but otherwise none of the screens were operational. In the center of the room was another separate console, flanked by joysticks and other controls normally reserved for flying.

Tommy drew a deep breath as he realized he had no idea how to work any of the electronics in front of him. He tried to imagine what the radio should look like. Scanning the walls of the room, Tommy slowly started to work his way around as he passed many electrical devices that he did not know. One device reminded him of what his mother Kylie would use to talk to Ludwig with. He turned it on, but saw it was more like a walkie-talkie.

Tommy frowned, but noticed a rack of devices next to it with various lines and numbers splattered across the faces of them. Turning off the walkie-talkie, he powered on one of the radio's and it glowed to life, filling the room with the noise of static. Adjusting a big knob on the radio, he watched the numbers go up on an LCD display without hearing a thing.

"Colcolmol..." a voice was heard momentarily. Tommy dialed back and came across a station he could not understand. However, his hopes rose as it seemed that people were still broadcasting radio despite the disaster that happened. Tommy dialed forward again.

"...before the signal was..." That he understood and he doubled back again. "...before the shift, because the continental arrangement then allowed the signal to better propagate off the surface of the northern and eastern Koopa Crags." said a voice. "Of course now the propagation shifted a few degrees south latitude for both locations, so reorienting the antennas on the map towards the west-south-west, and east-north-east in our case should result in better reception. Over."

"A map!" Tommy's thoughts spoke out loud. That's what he needed, and this is where he could find it. He searched the floor for anything that looked like a map, but found only documentation and instructions for what he assumed were to run the station. Turning to the console in the center of the room, he wondered if it was the big computer of the place and if so, perhaps there would be a map of the world on it. Looking for the power button, he spotted a large green button and pressed it.

"Tycho 8, This is Lemmy's Echo 9." another voice said as a boot up screen came on display. "We got your transmission loud and clear. It seems that with the new geography, that is if the new world is anything like we predicted it to be, the best place to propagate signal would be across the Northern Mushroom Range. So to confirm what you said, yes, the antenna's should be pointed towards those directions. Right now I have Echo 1 on the roof trying to turn it that way as he's listening in to our conversation, but it looks like our reception is already improving." There was a pause as the boot screen loaded up into a GUI with a picture of the Galaxy in the background, with its 8 original columns attached. "Echo 2 wants to know the current status update for you guys, since our last update exchange was over a day ago just after the shift. How are you guys faring out over there right now? Over."

The login prompt finished loading on the computer in front of him. "User and password?" Tommy echoed. He was never given those. Suddenly, the fields were typed in for him. "Login override complete." Tommy heard the AI say, and then a prompt came up afterward. "Do you want to log into the Galaxy Core?" Tommy read aloud. What was that? He shrugged and pressed yes. A somewhat complicated interface showed up, showing lists of video recordings, statistics, charts of various types and computerized controls for the Galaxy. It took a moment for Tommy to shift through the charts before finding what he presumed was the map of the world...the old world.

"Echo 9, This is Genlic's Tycho 8." said the first voice from before. "We received your broadcast loud and clear. Gain has already increased another +5db just from that small alignment. We are proceeding to realign our antenna upon the roof which should take approximately 20 minutes our time. Our current status is that we have become an island as we have stated previously. The ocean has risen higher since that last transmission which is on schedule to the total 600 foot rise or so. In the meantime, we have begun a boat building program as much of the surrounding land has turned into hills above the water and we want to contact the survivors that may be lingering on them. Our food production remains steady with small fluctuations due to demand in certain areas and readjusting staple crops. We have not been attacked by the UmNaru since their last attempt and it seems Genlic is now purged of that enemy. I hope your side of the world is looking as hopeful as ours. Over."

The name Genlic sounded familiar. Tommy swore he had overheard it when his dad and mom talked one time. Looking at the virtual map in front of him, he saw a number of important places labeled in many locations. He found Genlic to the northeast. Lemmy's...Lemmy Koopa? Was that a relative of his? Because he had a castle to the north of the Koopa Kingdom, within the arctic circle. They were communicating quite a distance, though the world probably looked different now. Tommy looked for a way to communicate with the two currently talking but couldn't find anything obvious. Shrugging, he turned back around and started to browse through the vast log of video files of the Galaxy. One showed the world from space tilting in place. "Wow." was all he could say at that sight. There was a lot about the past that his father never told him. Searching his name in the database, Tommy came across a number of videos with his father in them. He saw the face of his grandfather Bowser many times with him, who always looked like he was in a bad mood. One video he loaded had Ludwig in a room with his mother and they were doing...

"Gahhh!" Tommy cried and immediately closed the video. He did not need to see that at all, but now he couldn't get the image of his parents having sex out of his head. "That was not cool." Trying to get the horror off of his mind, he wondered if there was any way he could save the important things he was seeing and began snooping around the drawers. "That was awful."

"Tycho 8, this is Lemmy's Echo 9." said the second voice. "We are glad to hear that things are fine over there. Up here, everything is quite chaotic as the Bambesh Valley, should I call it, "experiment" failed and everyone's been rushing out of it and heading up our way. Thousands come everyday. They all tell us of gangs ravaging the valley, they take what food is left, they rape the women and kill them, torture the young boys, horrible. Really dark stuff down there. There's big news going around that a large group of them raided Ludwig's Castle not a day past."

Tommy immediately turned around upon hearing that name.

"I guess they sneaked off with the King and a few of his kids cause many of them were boasting about capturing "king asshole and his shit." They probably went to Bambesh Valley by now, but who knows what will happen to them. Ludwig did earn a beefy price on his head after what he pulled. But anyway, Kylie and her daughter ran up to us and she's trying to recover here, but she's not all with it. She doesn't have what it takes right now to take care of things, too shaken up. So we're all still relying on Lemmy cause Roy's not going to be here until nightfall at the earliest. And Roy's a whole other story. Over."

Tommy anxiously looked at the radio for anything he could use to communicate with them. On the top, he found what looked like a communication device attached to a long cord with a plug on the end. He had somehow looked it over the first time. Looking for the right jack, he plugged it into the transmit jack and fiddled with the controls.

"Hey, can you guys hear me?" Tommy said, simply speaking into it. Nothing happened, so he pressed some of the buttons on the device. "Can you guys hear me? I need help!"

"Echo 9, this is Genlic's Tycho 8. We have picked up a distress call and will be intercepting. Over."

"You heard me? I'm stuck out here and I have no idea where to go." Tommy explained.

"Hello. Please state your name, current location and the type of emergency." said the second voice from Genlic.

"I'm Tommy Koopa, I'm stuck in the Kong Jungles and I have no idea how to get back home." said Tommy.

Back at Genlic, Tycho 8 looked at his partner Tycho 2 with a quizzed look. "May I ask for your specific location? There are very few stations in that land. Over."

"Uh, I'm in this place called the Galaxy." said Tommy. "It's in bad shape but it works."

"What?" Tommy heard him say.

"I'm in this place called the Galaxy." Tommy repeated.

Tycho 2 frowned. "Is this guy crazy?" he said.

"Sir, the Galaxy was destroyed quite a while ago when it fell through the atmosphere." Tycho 8 explained. "You must be mistaken. Over."

Tommy felt frustrated again. "No dude, I know what I'm saying. I'm inside the Galaxy. It was used by the Kong's cause their banana stuff is everywhere, and I was told there was a radio in here. So here I am."

"Is he talking about the Kong sector?" Tycho 2 asked his companion. "Cause if that survived, that's big news. I got to tell Larry."

"Larry's in a meeting." Tycho 8 mentioned.

"Yeah, but this-"

"Hey guys!" Tycho 3 ran into the room. "Any reason why the Core just powered to life?"

"No, why?" asked Tycho 2.

"Because I was just walking by the room that it's in, and suddenly, boom! It turned on by itself and there was no one in the room! What's up with that?" All three looked at each other until Tycho 2 bolted from his seat and ran out of the room. "I'll go tell him!" he shouted back.

"Hello?" Tommy called, irked by the sudden silence.

"Hello. Sorry for the brief radio silence. Please remain where you are for the time being. We are contacting the owner of Genlic, Larry as the Galaxy was at last his responsibility."

"Larry Koopa?" Tommy asked. This had to be the same guy.

"Yes, that's the individual in question." said Tycho 8. "I should be able to give you an update within about 5 minutes, so please be patient."

"Okay." Tommy put the transceiver down and looked behind him, remembering what he was doing earlier. He found a memory card earlier, something he was familiar with after playing with Ludwig's computer a few times. Finding a slot, he put the card inside the machine and started to copy over everything that he found, including the maps of the old and new worlds. This was something he didn't want to lose.

Meanwhile, Tycho 2 ran through the halls of Genlic and hopped aboard several "light" elevators that disassembled and reassembled him in a flash. Working his way up, he eventually reached the conference room which was packed to the brim with many people standing around a sleek long table full of the communities heads. Considering the navigational maps spread across the table, it was probably about them exploring the new lands around them. Tycho 2 maneuvered his way through the back as he tried to reach the front of the table where King Larry sat, who was staring intently at the maps in front of him.

"Excuse me, Larry." Tycho 2 said in a harsh whisper. Larry merely looked at him. "The Galaxy Core just turned on by itself."

"What?" Larry snapped out of his concentration with the sailing project and looked through his mental mindscape.

"We also got this transmission-" But Larry was already up upon seeing Tommy Koopa inside the remains of the Kong Sector of the Galaxy. He should of kept an eye on him after he went off with the Kremlings, but responsibilities got into his way. Keeping track of the entire family was difficult on top of his duties at the survival shelter inside Genlic.

"What's up?" Mona asked, seated next to him.

"Looks like my nephew found where the Kong part of the Galaxy fell. You remember that the Kong's had that part under control when the Galaxy broke up, right?"

"Yeah, you told me that." Mona said.

"Well, it survived the shift." said Larry. "Look toward the Kong Jungles." Mona imagined the jungle in that area and immediately saw a red haired Koopa on a computer next to a number of electronic devices. "He got into your Galaxy Core. Pretty sneaky."

"Yeah. I'll go take care of him." said Larry, following Tycho 2 into the crowd.

"And I'll take care of this." Mona replied. Larry smiled then turned to the table. "Sorry for interrupting, but an emergency came up relating to my family, so Mona will take the reigns from here. Thanks for understanding." With that, he quickly made his way out of the room and towards the radio room with Tycho 2. Upon entering, he saw another of the radio team, Tycho 8 speaking to Tommy with his transmitter.

"He's here now." Tycho 8 said, giving the transceiver to Larry. "Hey Tommy, this is your uncle Larry. Well met."

"Awesome!" Tommy exclaimed. "I have a problem and I need some help."

"You're stuck and can't get home." said Larry, finishing for him.

"Yeah...looks like I'm far from home." said Tommy, looking at a map. "I traveled over an ocean or something. I never learned how to build boats or anything, and the Kong's aren't too happy cause I attacked them. The Kremlings said they were the bad guys."

"It's all politics." said Larry. "Kremlings want their banana hoard, they always go after it. Kong's want the Kremling Crew to be destroyed. They always fight over that region. The real problem is that you're caught in that fighting and getting out on your own wont be easy."

"I saw some bodies coming in." Tommy mentioned. "They looked like Kremlings."

"They probably tried to get in." said Larry. "Which means you're being targeted. K. Rool wouldn't let something like the Kong Sector slip out of his hands, especially in a world like this."

"Yeah. I came across a few of them." Tommy said. "They threatened me, so I told them who I was."

"Crap." Larry muttered. He had tried to leave everyone alone to live out their own lives without any magical interference, and his brother Iggy was of like mind as well. This included Ludwig's recent capture by one of the gangs in Bambesh Valley. It was a hot debate in his mind and he had a hard time settling it for himself: should he treat his cousins better than everyone else? Should be treat them like the "royalty" that they are, like how he was once treated? The family was no longer living under one roof, but instead were spread across the world in their own enclaves or otherwise. Considering his own experiences, Larry had decided to let the children decide their own fates, and make their own choices rather than be shuffled around by the interests of their uncles. It was not for a lack of caring: Larry kept watch over them everyday. But they each had what none of his siblings had in their youth: freedom of choice, and Larry didn't want to take that away from them.

However, in the case of Tommy it was better to rescue him then to leave him. Being a son of Ludwig, if he was left to his fate then Larry knew he'd be hounded for it by Ludwig and Kylie for the rest of his life. As a result, his influence on the council of monarchs would lessen as it was inevitable that none would be in favor of such a decision except for perhaps Iggy. Also, considering K. Rool's squadrons patrolling that land, it would be a matter of time before he knew of the Koopaling's existence. Holding him hostage for revenge against Bowser subjugating him in the past was a political mess Larry wished to avoid as well.

"Alright Tommy, you're the exception." said Larry, relenting. "I don't normally do this, but you don't know the danger you're in and the mess it would cost everyone. Hold still for a moment, alright?"

Tommy eyed the computer and saw that the file transfer was complete. He took out the memory card and shut off the computer before heading back to the radio. "Okay." he transmitted, putting the card in his pocket. A few moments later, he saw himself being surrounded by a dark, yet rainbowish light that soon encompassed his whole vision. As the vision cleared, he saw he was no longer inside the Galaxy, but inside a strange room where the walls were shiny and seemed to be made of black glass. Around him, he saw electric equipment stacked together with wires crossing this way and that. Four people surrounded him, one of them being a tall Koopa sporting a pair of horns with a sky blue mohawk. The horns were similar to his mother's.

"So you're Tommy." Larry began. "I'm Larry, your youngest uncle and the blood king."

"Thanks for helping me." said Tommy. "But what's a blood king?"

"I'll tell you as we walk. Come on." Larry gestured as he walked towards the room's entrance. "I'm a busy Koopa and time is everything. Thanks for letting me know guys. I'd at least give a wave to the guys who helped save you, Tommy."

"Thanks..."

"Don't worry about it. It's our job." said Tycho 2. "I'm Pete by the way. That's Jake and Three is Aidan."

"Another Pete?" Tommy murmured to himself. "Thank you guys. I had no idea what I would have done. I don't know much about radios yet...or finding food."

"Most don't...don't worry about it." said Jake. Tommy waved to the rest before following his uncle out the doorway and down a wide hall.

"The Blood King is responsible for the whole family." Larry explained. "But he's only allowed to own a single piece of land: this place. Your mom is the one in charge of the kingdom. She's the Earth Queen."

"Do you know where she is?" Tommy asked. "And where my brothers and sisters are?"

"I know what the whole family is doing 24/7." said Larry. "Your mother and your siblings were attacked by a gang and were separated. Ludwig tried to rescue her but while trying to protect her, he was captured along with Xavier and Shirley. They are being held captive and are being moved into the Bambesh Valley. Your mother took Samantha and fled to Lemmy's Castle to the northeast. Elizabeth and Trent made it out on their own and are trying to get inside the same castle. So your family got split up...four ways including you."

Tommy was silent for a moment. What he said brought up too many questions, and he sensed this disaster was more severe than his father had told him. "What about Amy? You didn't say anything about her yet."

"Yeah..." Larry stopped walking and remembered briefly seeing her fall through the sky during the shift. "She didn't make it."

"...what?"

"She's gone. Her parachute got torn up and she fell to the ground. The impact killed her. Yeah...sorry." He patted him on the back. "Lost my sister too. Everyone lost someone in...the end of the world."

But Tommy was barely listening as he struggled to fight back the tears forming in his eyes. Suddenly, he let out a cry as he spun around and punched the wall behind him. "Ow!" The wall refused to give and Tommy was sent to the floor with a throbbing claw. He cried instead from the self inflicted pain.

"It's not glass, Tommy." said Larry. "I don't know what it is. Not even uncle Iggy knows what it is. Did you break anything?" Tommy merely shook his head as he grasped his claw.

"Alright, come on." Larry reached down and pulled Tommy to his feet with his good claw. Tommy wiped the tears from his eyes. "You have to stay strong through this. Only you can heal you, but that doesn't mean you can't have some support. Come on, I want you to meet a few people."

Tommy remained silent as he followed his uncle down the hallway. He couldn't believe that his sister was dead, and what had happened to his siblings. It felt like the world was indeed falling apart and he didn't know what to do. A part of him wanted to try and save his father and siblings, but another part felt that he wasn't strong enough to do so. In his current emotional tumult, he remained unsure what to do.

They rounded a few corners until they entered another long hallway. The sun shined through the western windows, indicating the day was growing late. At length, Larry stopped in front of what appeared to be a part of the wall before it suddenly gave way and left an opening to walk through. Looking inside, Tommy saw a small room with two small Koopalings somewhat younger than he. The first was busy building a small fort made out of gray diamond blocks and only his bald head could be seen. The other was seated not far from it and had spiked black hair billowing toward the front along with a dark red shell. She looked up with a flat expression. "Yes daddy?"

"Maynard, Ashley, this is Tommy." said Larry. "He's one of your first cousins. He's been through a rough time so treat him nice, alright?"

Maynard poked his head up from the top of the fort. He was indeed bald and appeared fat and sported a brown shell. "You're Tommy?" he asked, pointing at him. Tommy merely nodded, still lost in his depression.

"I have to head back to a meeting, but I'll come around later to check up on you guys for supper." said Larry, walking out the door. With a wave, the walls re-converged and Tommy was left with what he presumed were Larry's kids.

"Can you help me?" Maynard asked, pushing a large block into place. "I'm making a fort to sleep in and the sun's going down already. You can sleep here too if you want."

Tommy shrugged. "What do you need help with?"

"The blocks." Maynard pointed to a large stack of them in the corner. Tommy went over and tried picking one up himself and found that he was barely able to do so. "Hnnng!"

"Don't hurt yourself." Maynard rushed over and helped him place the next block on the fort wall.

* * *

Leaving Tommy with his kids, Larry looked out towards the western ocean wondering what to do with him. The kid needed to go home and he knew that portions of the Kong Jungle were heading to Erzembar with hopes of being fed along with a number of other peoples around the world...so he saw in Iggy's mind. Tommy should have went on one of those voyages and he would've been on his way back already had he not attacked the Kongs. Iggy looked busy attending to new inhabitants within the newly raised complex, but weren't they all busy these days?

"Hey Iggy." Larry called out to him via telepathy.

"You rescued Tommy?" he replied, showing a group of hard working Toads into a home.

"Yeah, I need to send him your way." said Larry. In a moment, Iggy appeared in front of him. "Amazing he even survived that!" Iggy commented. "But I agree. Plus I could teach him a few things when the UmNaru decide to try and take the Valley and Lemmy's Castle."

"You think they'll go with that plan?" asked Larry.

"Narec's got the whole bunch united." said Iggy. "He's just waiting for the other side to come back together. That's one reason why Ludwig's a captive of his so called useless eaters. Karma yes, but it's also a trigger point. It will bring them all back together."

"I get you." Larry said, understanding his point of view. "They want their old rule back, and they can't do that with everyone scattered across the world."

"That's why we must never go in there." explained Iggy. "Because that's what they want: to lead the moles into the honey trap! The Valley of the Koopa's is one of those traps, but it looks like you figured that out already."

"Yeah..." Larry muttered, remembering seeing Roy and Vincent's flight through that dreaded place. "I could have quieted that area down, but something told me to back off. That whole area was stirred up intentionally. The Kings there called my name and I knew something was up."

"Bingo! The UmNaru always had that place under their thumb." said Iggy. "Why wouldn't they? So many Earth Kings and Queens under their influence...that's a major amount of black magic in one spot, and easy to manipulate as well! You did the right thing."

"I wanted to help them, but there wasn't much I could do that wouldn't jeopardize my position." said Larry. "So yeah, that kinda sucked."

"Speaking of Vincent, we need to call another meeting." said Iggy. "Not just to see all of us alive, but there's a lot of problems that most can't see and they need to know."

"Did that monarch's chamber even survive the shift?" Larry asked.

"Of course it did! The chamber rests on old rock of the Mushroom Range." explained Iggy. "There's a few cracks and boulders when I checked the place out but its largely still usable. The UmNaru will be meeting soon too so this is our chance."

"Narec is trying to pull his side together anyway." Larry said. "I don't think Roy even knows Narec is still alive."

"He suspects it but he doesn't really know." said Iggy. "The more important thing is what's under our feet right now." Iggy pointed to the floor.

"...is it a threat to the survival colony?" Larry asked suspiciously.

"At the moment? No." Iggy responded. "But I feel it is tied to everything we've been doing since...all of this started. I'll tell the whole story at the meeting, but here's the gist of it: Koopa is buried underneath Genlic, and he's not at rest."

"So the rumor is true." Larry said, remembering hearing the news while on board the Galaxy. "I had a feeling. They say this was the very spot Koopa landed upon when he first visited the planet. But what's this news about him not at rest?"

"How long until your group can settle on the islands?" Iggy asked.

"We're drawing that out now in a meeting upstairs, about what we've found so far." said Larry. "You said this wouldn't be a threat."

"And I said not right now." said Iggy. "But I have a bad feeling about this. He's not at rest, he's active. We can't see Koopa when we use the wands, only when they break or maybe some other spell I don't know about. But Penny broke the wand."

"How the hell did that happen?" Larry asked.

"You remember our conversation when I told you how I died." Iggy mentioned, tapping his head indicating it took place in their minds. "Before I came to, her form metamorphosed into a form unrecognizable to the wand's programming. The three wands were built to our physical specifications, to living creatures, not those of a plant...long story, but I came to with my broken wand and saw Koopa under Genlic who then attacked me."

"Why can't we see Koopa with the wands intact then?" Larry asked.

"Exactly! Now you see my point! What is the will of Koopa? Is it for us or for himself? Considering he attacked me and called me inferior, I would have to question his motives. He made the wands, and the wands made us who we are now. That doesn't mean we control the power in the wands. Could you trust a power you couldn't control, Larry?"

Larry frowned and looked out at the horizon. But Iggy looked at the floor suspiciously. "I know he's listening to us. He always was. How much has he manipulated our decisions? And why is he so interested in Roy's son?"

"Vincent? Maybe because he's an UmNaru outside their protocol." Larry suggested.

"Yes, but there's more to it." said Iggy. "There's more to all of this...if Koopa is the one driving the UmNaru to do what they do, then they operate by his will alone...which means our real enemy..." Iggy pointed to the floor again. "See the problem?"

"So you're saying that Koopa willed the line of Marthos to control our line to better impress his will over everyone?" Larry asked. "That means we're dealing with an evil ancestor who probably wants total control over his descendants. It also means he knows about everything we just said...so what now?"

"The plan is to not make a plan." Iggy replied. "Because he knows every plan we come up with, so every plan is forfeit upon conception. But you control the family. I wonder if that includes Koopa himself."

"I don't think I'm powerful enough to control Koopa if he's able to subtly control all of us." said Larry. "And if he knows what I'm already planning, then I'd be quick work."

"I think we should ask the Kappur." said Iggy. "We need to talk to them anyway."

"Oh yeah, the hybrids. They still haven't said much about them." Larry mentioned.

"Probably because Koopa is listening." Iggy said. "Makes me wonder, but I shouldn't. Heh. Well, we should do this ASAP, maybe tomorrow and ask for the Kappur when we're there."

"Yeah, I'll let Mona know, and the others." said Larry. "By the way, congratulations."

Iggy smiled. "Thanks! With the way the genome is sequencing right now, we think it'll be a boy. But I should thank you for finding out how to do it. Penny wouldn't have gone with it otherwise."

Larry smirked. "No problem. It was a little trick the Blood Kings upstairs taught me. But I should get back to the meeting."

"I'll come by after your supper to take Tommy to Erzembar." said Iggy. "Alright! See you." With that, Iggy disappeared in a flash and Larry looked back toward the room his kids were in. It was clear that the younger generation was the real target as their minds were more malleable than his own generation. He would have to keep an eye over them as the Transformation progressed and make sure they remained able to think clearly and make their own decisions. If what Iggy told him was true, then he had been living on top the world's greatest evil this whole time, and the roles of the three wands were greatly misunderstood. Worst case scenario, Genlic would become a battleground and Larry knew he had to maneuver his survival colony onto the neighboring islands before that ever happened. With a new mindset, Larry headed back upstairs to rejoin Mona and the rest of the meeting.


End file.
